Effect of folic acid deficiency on pregnant rats and their offspring.
Two groups of 63-day-old female Wistar rats were fed a folic acid deficient diet, based on 20% of vitamin-free casein and containing 1% of succinylsulfathiazole, for 5 weeks (group A) and 9 weeks (group B) before being bred, and the same diet was continued through pregnancy and lactation. Three out of eleven (21.3%) and three out of seven (42.9%) rats in groups A and B, respectively, resorbed completely, while no control rat resorbed. No pups from group B survived to weaning. Both groups (A and B) showed depressed feed consumption (although the effect in group A rats was small) and weight gains and increased formiminoglutamic acid excretion in the urine during gestation, and low serum folic acid by the end of lactation. A study of blood components in group A rats revealed leucopenia, granulocytopenia, and increased reticulocyte count. While no congenital deformities were observed in pups from deficient dams, group A and group B dams in contrast to controls produced smaller sized litters with lower birth weights and poor survival rate. Surviving pups from group A dams had decreased weaning weights with significantly lower brain weights and brain DNA per gram of tissue.
D000818:Animals; D001772:Blood Cell Count; D001835:Body Weight; D001921:Brain / Q000378:metabolism; D004247:DNA / Q000378:metabolism; D004032:Diet; D004435:Eating; D005260:Female; D005333:Fetus / Q000378:metabolism / Q000502:physiology; D005494:Folic Acid Deficiency / Q000378:metabolism / Q000503:physiopathology*; D005565:Formiminoglutamic Acid / Q000652:urine; D007774:Lactation; D009929:Organ Size; D011247:Pregnancy; D011248:Pregnancy Complications / Q000378:metabolism / Q000503:physiopathology*; D051381:Rats; D012098:Reproduction
D005565:Formiminoglutamic Acid; D004247:DNA