title: AIN-93 purified diets for laboratory rodents: final report of the American Institute of Nutrition ad hoc writing committee on the reformulation of the AIN-76A rodent diet.
abstract: For sixteen years, the American Institute of Nutrition Rodent Diets, AIN-76 and AIN-76A, have been used extensively around the world. Because of numerous nutritional and technical problems encountered with the diet during this period, it was revised. Two new formulations were derived: AIN-93G for growth, pregnancy and lactation, and AIN-93M for adult maintenance. Some major differences in the new formulation of AIN-93G compared with AIN-76A are as follows: 7 g soybean oil/100 g diet was substituted for 5 g corn oil/100 g diet to increase the amount of linolenic acid; cornstarch was substituted for sucrose; the amount of phosphorus was reduced to help eliminate the problem of kidney calcification in female rats; L-cystine was substituted for DL-methionine as the amino acid supplement for casein, known to be deficient in the sulfur amino acids; manganese concentration was lowered to one-fifth the amount in the old diet; the amounts of vitamin E, vitamin K and vitamin B-12 were increased; and molybdenum, silicon, fluoride, nickel, boron, lithium and vanadium were added to the mineral mix. For the AIN-93M maintenance diet, the amount of fat was lowered to 40 g/kg diet from 70 g/kg diet, and the amount of casein to 140 g/kg from 200 g/kg in the AIN-93G diet. Because of a better balance of essential nutrients, the AIN-93 diets may prove to be a better choice than AIN-76A for long-term as well as short-term studies with laboratory rodents.
authors.affiliation: United States Department of Agriculture, Grand Forks Human Nutrition Research Center, ND 58202-9034.
authors.forename: P G
authors.initials: PG
authors.lastname: Reeves
authors.forename: F H
authors.initials: FH
authors.lastname: Nielsen
authors.forename: G C
authors.initials: GC
authors.lastname: Fahey
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D000975:Antioxidants; D002241:Carbohydrates; D004032:Diet / Q000592:standards*; D005260:Female; D051379:Mice; D008903:Minerals; D009751:Nutritional Requirements; D051381:Rats; D012377:Rodentia; D014815:Vitamins
chemical_list: D000975:Antioxidants; D002241:Carbohydrates; D008903:Minerals; D014815:Vitamins