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Effect of Maternal Zinc Deficiency or Food Restriction on Rat Fetal Pancreas. I. Procarboxypeptidase A and Chymotrypsinogen¹

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

Maternal zinc deficiency lowered the protein, zinc and zymogen content of the day 19 rat fetal pancreas. Pregnant Sprague-Dawley rats were fed a zinc-deficient diet (0.4 ± 0.1 ppm zinc) ad libitum or a zinc-supplemented control diet (100 ppm zinc) either ad libitum or with restricted intake. At day 19 of pregnancy, the pancreata from zinc-deficient fetuses contained 50% less zinc and 15% less cellular protein than did fetal pancreas from normal or restricted intake controls, although DNA content was normal. Zymogen granulation of pancreatic acinar cells from zinc-deficient fetuses was decreased. The two major proteolytic zymogens of the rat fetal pancreas—procarboxypeptidase A, a zinc metalloprotein, and chymotrypsinogen—were each 30% lower per cell in zinc-deficient fetuses than in controls. Zinc-deficient fetuses taken from large litters of seven or more young per litter had lower levels of procarboxypeptidase A and chymotrypsinogen in the pancreata than did fetuses taken from smaller litters. The results suggest that exocrine zymogen accumulation is lower than normal in the pancreata of zinc-deficient fetuses, irrespective of the zinc dependency of the enzyme proteins involved.

KEY WORDS: • pancreatic development • zinc deficiency • procarboxypeptidase A • chymotrypsinogen

¹ Supported in part by NIH grant HD-01743 from the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development. L. Robinson was a Procter and Gamble Predoctoral Fellow.

² To whom reprint requests should be sent.

Manuscript received 9 July 1980.