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Maternal Dietary Deficiency and Cellular Development of Progeny in the Rat¹

Institute de diététique et de nutrition, Université de Montréal, Montréal, P.Q., Canada

A detailed study was undertaken to determine and correlate the effect of undernutrition imposed during the period of gestation (experimental group 1) and during the period of growth, gestation and lactation (experimental group 2) in female rats on the metabolism of nucleic acid and protein in various organs of such dams and their young. The undernourished rats in experimenal group 2 became pregnant in only 2 to 3 days whereas the control group took 7 to 8 days to become pregnant. The total number of young and their body weight at birth were considerably reduced in both forms of undernutrition. A comparison of the data on the undernourished dams and their young in relation to the control groups indicated that: a) the body weight, organ weight, total organ DNA, RNA and protein were all reduced; b) the cell weight, RNA and protein content per cell increased in the liver and in the kidney of both the undernourished dams and their young. From these results it can be concluded that undernutrition imposed in one generation affected the cellular development of various organs in a similar fashion in the following generation. However, when the composition data for the progeny were expressed per 100 g body weight many of these changes disappeared. An increased milk intake of the young of dams undernourished during growth, gestation and lactation, (3 to 4 young instead of 8 to 11 young per dam) caused a partial restoration towards normal.

KEY WORDS: • nucleic acids and proteins • young • underfed dam

¹ Supported by the Medical Research Council of Canada under grant MA 3585.

Manuscript received 1 June 1973.