The effects of prenatal and postnatal protein malnutrition of physical and motor development of the rat.
The effects of protein malnutrition in the early stages of mammalian life have been found to be pervasive and frequently very persistent. We conducted this experiment to investigate the relative effects of protein deficiency during prenatal and/or postnatal (preweaning) stages of development in order to evaluate the effects of the timing of protein malnutrition and its duration and found significant deficits on a variety of measures of physical and motor development. Animals maintained on low protein diets both prenatally and postnatally showed the greatest developmental deficits whereas animals maintained on low protein diets either prenatally or postnatally were developmentally intermediate relative to animals maintained on normal diets.
D000367:Age Factors; D000818:Animals; D000831:Animals, Newborn / Q000254:growth & development*; D001835:Body Weight; D001846:Bone Development; D003817:Dentition; D004644:Emotions; D005106:Exploratory Behavior; D005260:Female; D008431:Maternal-Fetal Exchange; D009043:Motor Activity; D011247:Pregnancy; D011502:Protein-Energy Malnutrition; D051381:Rats