Summary
Rats were made protein-calorie malnourished (PCM) by pre- and postnatal food deprivation. They were killed at either 28 or 84 days of age. The body weight of the PCM rats was approximately 50% of that of normally fed animals, and the brains of the malnourished animals weighed about 20% less than controls at 28 days of age, while the brain weight curve showed that the undernourished animals started to catch up with the controls toward 84 days of age although not reaching the level of control animals. Concerning PCM animals, postnatally rehabilitated by cross fostering until weaning and afterward given full nourishment no differences in brain or body weigts as compared to controls existed at 84 days of age.
At 28 days the S-100 protein of PCM rats was decreased in the occipital cerebral cortex, anterior part of cerebellar hemispheres, and in the brain stem. At 84 days PCM had caused a decreased level of S-100 protein also in other brain regions, such as parietal cortex, posterior part of cerebellar vermis, and hippocampus. Since the S-100 protein is produced by and mainly located in astrocytes the most likely explanation for the reduction of the amount of this protein would be that the susceptibility of the astroglial cells of young rats to PCM varies in different brain areas.
Postnatal nutritional rehabilitation through cross fostering during lactation and administration of a full diet after weaning until 28 or 84 days of age resulted in normal S-100 levels but elevated levels of other soluble proteins in parietal cortex and in the brain stem. Since proliferation and differentiation of the S-100 containing astroglial cells takes place mainly postnatally it is conceivable that PCM restricted to the prenatal period does not affect the levels of this protein in the brain regions examined.
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Supported by grants from the Swedish Medical Research Council (SMF B80-12X-03488-096, B81-12X-03488-10A) to P. Sourander and from the Swedish Baby Food Industry Fund for Nutritional Research
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Wroński, A., Haglid, K.G., Rosengren, L. et al. The influence of early protein-calorie malnutrition and postnatal rehabilitation on levels of a brain-specific protein (S 100) in discrete rat brain areas. Acta Neuropathol 56, 81–86 (1982). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00690577
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00690577