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Human Protein Deficiency: Results of a Nigerian Village Study^1,2,

Department of Chemical Pathology, University of Ibadan, Ibadan, Nigeria

A skimmed milk supplement was fed to lactating women to raise the protein content of their energy adequate diet from 25 or 50 grams to 100 g/day. The amount of milk secreted, as well as the amount consumed by the child, increased significantly. The children gained more weight. There was no change in concentration of total milk solids, protein or lactose in the majority of cases. Hence, the principal effect of protein deficiency on milk secretion was a decrease in volume. Skimmed milk protein also fed as a supplement to subclinically malnourished village children caused an increase in growth rate, plasma amino acids, total body albumin (but not in plasma albumin level), albumin and gamma globulin turnover and plasma levels of insulin and thyroid hormones. There was a fall in plasma level of cortisol, growth hormone and in total body water, especially the extracellular compartment. The transition from subclinical malnutrition to kwashiorkor was associated with a further severe decline in protein synthesis and turnover and in the activities of several plasma enzymes. The essential role of hormonal changes in the adaptive responses to low protein intake has been emphasized. The level of hormones in plasma, as well as the concentration of total essential amino acids and the turnover of plasma proteins, are useful early indicators of the relative adequacy of protein intake by human population groups.

KEY WORDS: • protein deficiency • milk secretion • protein turnover • hormones

¹ These studies were carried out during 1959–1966. Some aspects of the work such as a repeat of the performance and verbal tests of mental function to measure the effect of protein supplementation on mental development were not completed because of the civil disturbances in Nigeria during 1966. Analyses of data and publication were delayed by the same circumstances.

² Supported by Grant No. A-5250. Institute of Arthritis and Metabolic Diseases. National Institutes of Health. Bethesda, Maryland, and by a grant from the Rockefeller Foundation, New York, N.Y. A grant was also made by the World Health Organization, Geneva. Switzerland in support of the lactation studies.

³ Requests for reprints should be addressed to Joseph C. Edozien. Department of Nutrition. School of Public Health. University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, North Carolina 27514.

⁴ Present address as above.

⁵ Present address: Cedars of Lebanon Hospital, 1321 Northwest Fourteenth Street, Miami, Florida 33152.

⁶ Present address: Department of Nutrition and Foods, School of Home Economics, Auburn University, Auburn, Alabama 36830.

Manuscript received 21 April 1975.

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