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Pre- and Postweaning Food Restrictions Interact to Determine Reproductive Success and Milk Volume in Rats^1,2,3,

Division of Nutritional Sciences, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY 14853

This study was designed to determine if nutrient availability during gestation and early life modifies the effects of subsequent dietary intake on reproductive and lactation performance. Rat pups, whose mothers had been allowed free access to food or were food-restricted to 50% of ad libitum consumption were assigned to free access or food restricted groups after weaning, creating 4 groups (pre- and postweaning diet). Pre- and postweaning diets interacted significantly to influence age at conception, number of pups born, and milk yield on d 14 of lactation. Early undernutrition deterred conception in dams later allowed free access to food and resulted in fewer pups born to dams later allowed free access to food, but not those in the food-restricted group. By d 15 of lactation, only dietary treatment after weaning influenced litter weight. Milk yield per gram dam weight was not impaired in the food restricted-ad libitum group but was lowered in dams in the ad libitum-food restricted group. Milk yield per gram litter weight was not impaired in ad libitum-food restricted dams but was reduced in food restricted-adlibitum dams. These results extend to the preweaning period our previous finding that past or current food restriction impairs reproductive success and decreases milk yield in rats.

KEY WORDS: • nutrition • reproduction • milk • lactation • rats

¹ Presented in part at a meeting of the International Society for Research on Human Milk and Lactation in Stockholm, Sweden, in August, 1992. Chronic food restriction pre- and post-weaning interact to determine milk volume in rats. Rasmussen, K. M., Littleton, A. W. & Schulze, K. J.

² Funded in part by National Institutes of Health grants HD 14953 and HD 28663.

³ The costs of publication of this article were defrayed in part by the payment of page charges. This article must therefore be hereby marked "advertisement" in accordance with 18 USC section 1734 solely to indicate this fact.

⁴ To whom correspondence and reprint requests should be addressed.

Manuscript received 29 August 1994. Revision accepted 28 March 1995.