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Effects of neonatal undernutrition of rats on the synthesis of phosphatidylcholine and phosphatidylethanolamine by microsomes from gray matter and white matter
Author(s) -
Reddy T. Sanjeeva,
Horrocks Lloyd A.
Publication year - 1986
Publication title -
international journal of developmental neuroscience
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.761
H-Index - 88
eISSN - 1873-474X
pISSN - 0736-5748
DOI - 10.1016/0736-5748(86)90020-1
Subject(s) - white matter , transferase , chemistry , medicine , endocrinology , biochemistry , biology , enzyme , magnetic resonance imaging , radiology
Undernutrition of rats during the suckling period produces deficits of glycerophospholipids in white matter but not in gray matter. The synthetic enzymes, CDPethanolamine:diacylglycerol phosphoethanolaminetransferase (EC 2.7.8.1) and CDPcholine:diacylglycerol phosphocholinetransferase (EC 2.7.8.2), were assayed in washed microsomal fractions from moderately and severely undernourished rats at 21 days of age. Deficits in brain weight were 14 and 31%, respectively. The transferase activities in white matter were more than 2‐fold greater than in gray matter. Moderate undernutrition has less effect on total transferase activities but K m values were increased for CDPethanolamine with phosphoethanolamine transferase and for CDPcholine and dicaprin with phosphocholine transferase. Severe undernutrition produced by feeding the dams a diet with 4% protein gave deficits for phosphoethanolamine transferase of 52 and 55% and for phosphocholine transferase of 40 and 46% for gray matter and white matter, respectively. These results are consistent with the deficits of glycerophospholipids in white matter. Additional factors, such as synthetic rates in vivo and a reduction of turnover rates, must be sought for the sparing of the glycerophospholipid content of gray matter during undernutrition.