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 Switzer, B. R. Articles by Pick, J. R. Search for Related Content PubMed PubMed Citation Articles by Switzer, B. R. Articles by Pick, J. R.

Effects of Dietary Protein and Ethanol Intake on Pregnant Beagles Fed Purified Diets^1,2,

Departments of Nutrition and Pathology, and the Division of Laboratory Animal Medicine, Schools of Public Health and Medicine, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, NC 27514

Maternal weight gain of beagles was approximately 50% lower when ethanol was given twice daily at a dose of 1.8 g/kg body weight with either control protein (17% energy from protein) or low protein (8.5%) diet as compared to isocalorically sucrose-treated animals. Similarly, pup birth weights were about 27% lower from beagles given ethanol with either diet when compared to those from sucrose-treated bitches. Two weeks after beginning ethanol treatment, pregnant bitches fed either diet had higher hematocrit values and lower plasma concentrations of albumin and calcium as compared to sucrose-treated animals. Low dietary protein treatment, rather than ethanol, lowered maternal concentrations of red blood cell folate during pregnancy. As compared to sucrose-treated bitches, ethanol prevented folate levels in red blood cells from returning to the normal range by the 9th wk of pregnancy in animals fed low dietary protein. These data show that ethanol consumption and low dietary protein intake, independently of each other, significantly depress maternal weight gain, pup birth weight and some nutritionally related parameters of the mother.

KEY WORDS: • ethanol • dietary protein • pregnancy outcome • albumin • calcium • folic acid

¹ This study was supported in part by the National Institute of Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (Grant AA03123).

² Preliminary reports of the data were presented at the annual meetings of the Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology in April 1983 (refs. 4–6), at the Research Society on Alcoholism in April 1983 (ref. 7) and at the Tenth Annual Meeting of the Fetal Alcohol Effects Study Group in Santa Fe, NM, June 1984.

Manuscript received 18 January 1985. Revision accepted 25 November 1985.