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 Wasynczuk, A. Articles by Morré, D. M. Search for Related Content PubMed PubMed Citation Articles by Wasynczuk, A. Articles by Morré, D. M.

Effect of Maternal Vitamin B-6 Deficiency on Specific Regions of Developing Rat Brain: Amino Acid Metabolism^1,2,

Department of Foods and Nutrition, Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN 47907

Amino acid metabolism may be adversely affected by vitamin B-6 deficiency. The effects of a maternal deficiency of vitamin B-6 on concentrations of amino acids in substantia nigra (SN), caudate nucleus/putamen (C/P) and cortex (CORT) in progeny were studied. Female albino rats were fed diets containing either 0.6 (deficient) or 7.0 (control) mg pyridoxine·HCl (PN·HCl) per kilogram diet ad libitum throughout growth, gestation and lactation. Paralleling a significant decrease in body weight, pups in the deficient groups began to show gross neurological symptoms of the deficiency at approximately 11 days of age. Analysis of brain regions at 15 days of age showed that the deficiency resulted in increased concentrations of cystathionine, glycine, leucine, isoleucine and valine and decreased concentrations of alanine and serine in SN, C/P and CORT. Often these changes were more pronounced in one or two of the regions analyzed. At 1 and 3 hours after an intraperitoneal injection of 100 mg PN·HCl per kilogram body weight into deficient pups, concentrations of cystathionine, leucine, isoleucine, valine, alanine and serine in brain regions remained similar to preinjection values. However, within 3 hours postinjection, glycine concentrations had decreased and were similar to control levels in SN and C/P.

KEY WORDS: • vitamin B-6 • pyridoxine • brain • amino acids

¹ Supported in part by U.S. Public Health Service grant NS-14005 and Purdue Research Foundation. Paper No. 8988 of the Purdue University Agriculture Experiment Station, West Lafayette, IN 47907.

² The data are taken from a Ph.D. thesis of the senior author.

³ To whom reprint requests should be sent.

Manuscript received 15 December 1982.