Effect of Varying the Intake of Calcium Pantothenate of Rats During Pregnancy I. Chemical Findings in the Young at Birth

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Abstract
The effect of altering the pantothenic acid intake of the maternal rat during reproduction upon the concentration of several blood constituents of the young at birth and upon the pantothenic acid content of the maternal and fetal tissues at parturition has been studied. The females received a stock diet or synthetic rations furnishing zero, 100 µg or 1 mg amounts of calcium pantothenate daily. It was observed that if the maternal diet supplied no pantothenic acid from the initiation of pregnancy, small litters of undersized young were produced. The tissues of such young at birth contained approximately 9% as much pantothenic acid as was present in young of mothers receiving 1 mg of the vitamin. Blood concentrations for pantothenic acid were reduced in this group of young and some accumulation of pyruvic acid was encountered. The presence of 100 µg of calcium pantothenate in the maternal diet supported blood pantothenic acid values of the young equal to those of animals whose dams received the stock ration. Similarly, 100 µg of calcium pantothenate in the maternal diet resulted in normal pyruvic acid values of the young although the amount of pantothenic acid deposited in the fetal tissues at birth was still considerably less than that of rats produced by stock females. Serum values for ascorbic acid and alkaline phosphatase were not altered by the differences in composition of the maternal diets.