Effects of Nutritional Deprivation During Prenatal and/or Lactating Periods and Environment on Concentration of Neurotransmitters and Behavior in Later Life

태아기와 수유기의 식이제한과 환경이 성장후 신경전달물질의 함량 및 행동에 미치는 영향

This study was undertaken to invesigate the effect of early nutritional deprivation and environment on neurotransmitter concentrations and behavior in later life. The restoring process of rats fed foods ad libitum after 50% restriction of the casein or the Korean diet during the prenatal and/or the lactating periods was observed. There were two rearing conditions, isolated and enriched, after weaning. Behavioral development was measured by the Y- shaped water maze and the open field test. The neurotransmitters were analyzed after sacrifice at the age of 21 weeks. The results are summarized as follows. 1) The body weight impairment by dietary restriction during the prenatal and lactating periods could be restored within 18 weeks after weaning in case of living in a classical cage. The effect of quantitative restriction was bigger in the Korean diet than in the casein diet. 2) The brain weight was decreased by nutritional deprivation. Environmental enrichment increased it slightly. 3) The concentration of neurotransmitters, norepinephrine, dopamine, and serotonin, were not shown any traces of the dietary restriction at the age of 21 weeks. 4) In the maze test, the deprived rats made more errors than the nourished and the rats fed the Korean diet more than those fed the cascin dict. The environmental enrichment could decrease the number of errors. 5) In the open field test, the dietary deprived groups showed less reaction time, more squares entered in the field, and less number of fecal boli than the nourished among the environmentally isolated rats. However, rats living in the enriched cage without experience of nutritional stress showed the lowest emotionality and the elevated exploratory activity.