[Adrenal cortex activity in the malnourished newborn rat].
Newborn rats (4 day-old) were subjected to chronic malnutrition through their mothers submitted to an intermittent fasting (one day out of two) during 41 days. These offspring were compared with others undergoing a treatment of a 21 days malnutrition followed by 20 days ad libitum realimentation. Rats whose mothers were nourished ad libitum with a standard diet served as controls. The body growth was hindered by the malnutrition but restored when fasting was followed by realimentation. The weight of the encephalon, the heart and the ovary was unchanged. In contrast, testicle atrophy was observed without correction by realimentation. A corticoadrenal activation characterized by an increase in blood and adrenal corticosterone levels and by an adrenal gland hypertrophy was observed in undernourished animals. A lower response of the adrenal cortex to ether stress (added stress) was also observed. All these perturbations were suppressed when fasting was followed by refeeding.
Laboratoire de Physiologie Animale, Faculté des Sciences de Tunis, Tunisie.
L
L
Hjaiej
A
A
el Feki
S
S
el Fazaa
N
N
Gharbi
A
A
Kamoun
D000302:Adrenal Cortex / Q000378:metabolism / Q000473:pathology / Q000503:physiopathology*; D000824:Animal Nutritional Physiological Phenomena; D000818:Animals; D000831:Animals, Newborn; D003345:Corticosterone / Q000378:metabolism; D006984:Hypertrophy; D009748:Nutrition Disorders / Q000503:physiopathology*; D051381:Rats; D017208:Rats, Wistar; D013312:Stress, Physiological / Q000503:physiopathology
D003345:Corticosterone