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The effects of prenatal and postnatal protein malnutrition on physical and motor development of the rat
Author(s) -
Sykes S. E.,
Cheyne J. A.
Publication year - 1976
Publication title -
developmental psychobiology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.055
H-Index - 93
eISSN - 1098-2302
pISSN - 0012-1630
DOI - 10.1002/dev.420090312
Subject(s) - malnutrition , physical development , developmental psychology , motor skill , psychology , prenatal development , medicine , physiology , biology , pregnancy , fetus , genetics
The effects of protein malnutrition in the early stages of mammalian life have been found to be pervasive and frequently very persistent. We conducted this experiment to investigate the relative effects of protein deficiency during prenatal and/or postnatal (preweaning) stages of development in order to evaluate the effects of the timing of protein malnutrition and its duration and found significant deficits on a variety of measures of physical and motor development. Animals maintained on low protein diets both prenatally and postnatally showed the greatest developmental deficits whereas animals maintained on low protein diets either prenatally or postnatally were developmentally intermediate relative to animals maintained on normals diets.