title: Influence of a multideficient diet from northeastern Brazil on resting blood pressure and baroreflex sensitivity in conscious, freely moving rats.
abstract: The "regional basic diet" or RBD is a multideficient diet (providing 8% protein) which is known to produce dietary deficiencies in some populations in northeastern Brazil. The present study investigated the effects of RBD-induced malnutrition on resting blood pressure and baroreflex sensitivity in conscious rats. Malnourished rats were obtained by feeding dams the RBD during mating and pregnancy (RBD-1 group) or during nursing and a 10-day period after weaning (RBD-2 group). At 90 days of age, only RBD-2 rats weighed significantly (P<0.001) less than control rats born to dams fed a standard commercial diet (23% protein) during pregnancy and nursing. Baseline mean arterial pressure and heart rate of both RBD-1 and RBD-2 rats were comparable to those of controls. The slopes for both reflex bradycardia and tachycardia (bpm/mmHg) induced by intravenous phenylephrine and sodium nitroprusside, respectively, were unchanged in either RBD-1 (-2.08 +/- 0.11 and -3.10 +/- 0.43, respectively) or RBD-2 (-2.32 +/- 0.30 and -3.73 +/- 0.53, respectively) rats, when compared to controls (-2.09 +/- 0.10 and -3.17 +/- 0.33, respectively). This study shows that, after a prolonged period of nutritional recovery, the patterns of resting blood pressure and baroreflex sensitivity of both pre- and postnatally malnourished rats were similar to those of controls. The decreased body weight and the tendency to increased reflex tachycardia in RBD-2 rats may suggest that this type of maternal malnutrition during lactation is more critical than during pregnancy.
authors.affiliation: Departamento de Fisiologia e Farmacologia, Universidade Federal de Pernambuco, Recife, PE, Brasil.
authors.forename: F M
authors.initials: FM
authors.lastname: Monteiro
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Lahlou
authors.forename: J A
authors.initials: JA
authors.lastname: Albuquerque
authors.forename: A M
authors.initials: AM
authors.lastname: Cabral
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D017704:Baroreflex; D001724:Birth Weight; D001794:Blood Pressure; D001938:Brazil; D016292:Procedural Sedation; D004032:Diet / Q000009:adverse effects*; D005260:Female; D006339:Heart Rate; D008297:Male; D011247:Pregnancy; D011502:Protein-Energy Malnutrition / Q000150:complications / Q000209:etiology*; D051381:Rats; D017208:Rats, Wistar; D013610:Tachycardia / Q000209:etiology