Dietary Restriction and Reproduction in the Rat

Protein-calorie deficiency in rats

“…This did not occur in our experiments in which the females were protein-calorie deficient from weaning and, as suggested for dogs (Platt & Stewart, 1968), the gestational deficiencies were shared. Birth weights can also be reduced by restricting the food intake of pregnant rats but, to obtain reductions similar to those reported above, the intake has to be reduced by 25 or 50% (Chow & Lee, 1964;Berg, 1965). These 'calorie restricted' rats are said to remain small even when well-fed after weaning (Chow, Blackwell, Blackwell, Hou, Anilane & Sherwin, 1968 Guthrie & Brown, 1968) have shown that rats given inadequate supplies of milk (e.g.…”

Effect of maternal protein and/or energy deficiency during pregnancy on catecholamines and serotonin in fetal rat brain.

“…An Rat fetal growth is retarded when the mother's diet is deficient in protein or energy or both (1)(2)(3)(4). The extent of this growth retardation varies in different fetal organs the brain showing the least retardation, but even in the brain cell proliferation is impaired in pups of severely undernourished dams (5-7).…”

The Effects of Starvation or of Treatment With Cytotoxic Agents on Pregnancy in Mice

“…It is of interest that starvation, when effective, always resulted in the death of all the embryos, a phenomenon also observed in the rat by Berg (1965). When antimitotic substances were injected the uterus contained a few survivors.…”