Maternal Protein Deprivation during Pregnancy or Lactation in Rats and the Efficiency of Food and Nitrogen Utilization of the Progeny

Abstract

Both prenatal and postnatal malnutrition were imposed upon rats by feeding pregnant dams a low protein diet, or after either normal or malnourished pups were born, feeding a low protein diet to the dams they were suckling for the first 3 weeks of life. A second period of postnatal malnutrition was imposed on some rats by feeding a low protein diet for 4 weeks to pups after they were weaned at 3 weeks of age. Among the physiological and biochemical effects that were found to persist for at least 6 months after a postnatal exposure to protein-calorie malnutrition, the following observations were made: