QUICK SEARCH:   [advanced] Author: Keyword(s): Year:  Vol:  Page:

This Article Full Text (PDF) Purchase Article View Shopping Cart Alert me when this article is cited Alert me if a correction is posted Services Similar articles in this journal Similar articles in PubMed Alert me to new issues of the journal Download to citation manager Citing Articles Citing Articles via Google Scholar Google Scholar Articles by Wallingford, J. C. Articles by Zeman, F. J. Search for Related Content PubMed PubMed Citation Articles by Wallingford, J. C. Articles by Zeman, F. J.

Effect of Maternal Protein-calorie Malnutrition on Fetal Rat Cerebellar Neurogenesis¹

Department of Nutrition, University of California, Davis, CA 95616

Pregnant Sprague-Dawley rats were fed, ad libitum, diets containing either 24% (control) or 4% casein (deprived) from conception through gestation. On the 13th, 14th, 15th, 16th, 17th or the 18th day of gestation the dams of both dietary groups were injected with 2.5 mCi [³H]thymidine per gram of body weight. Pups born to these dams were reared by stock diet-fed foster mothers to insure normal postnatal nutrition and were killed on postnatal day 28. Retention of isotope in the nuclei of four types of macroneurons, as visualized in autoradiographs prepared from cerebellar tissues, was used to determine the time of final DNA synthesis in these cells. In the brains of animals malnourished in utero, the time of administration of the label which resulted in maximal retention and peak mean percentages of heavily and lightly labeled cells indicated that delayed cerebellar neurogenesis had occurred as early as the 13th day of gestation.

KEY WORDS: • prenatal malnutrition • neurogenesis • cerebellar neurons • [³H]thymidine • autoradiography

¹ Supported in part by grant HD-08499 from the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development.

² To whom reprint requests should be sent.

Manuscript received 18 June 1979.