[Values of a number of blood parameters and body growth of rats subjected to fetal and post-natal protein malnutrition].

Nests of rats, generated by mothers receiving synthetic diets of different protein content during gestation and in post-pregnancy phase, have been kept under observation during suckling and after weaning care being taken that offspring received the same diet as characterised maternal feeding. It was found that in the animals receiving hypoproteic diet (6% proteins), early induced malnutrition extended up to the 40th day of life, namely the term for the cellular subdivision of almost all organs, cuts body growth by about 80% compared to control rats, and is accompanied by a remarkable drop in packed-cell volume and haemoglobin value. In parallel, the electrophoretic pictures of hypoproteic rats were characterised by a drop in serous albumin, offset by a marked rise in beta and gamma globulin, Finally, evaluation of the weigh ratios between the brain and other organs of vital importance, underlines the preferential growth of the cerebral mass in rats receiving an inadequate protein supply.