Relation of Thiamine to Reproduction in the Rat

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Abstract
Reproduction has been studied in adult female rats placed on thiamine-deficient diets the day of breeding or for one to three weeks prior to breeding. Instituting thiamine deficiency on the day of breeding or one week prior to breeding resulted in 97 to 100% litters; 21 to 56% of the young were found dead and the living young were subnormal in birth weight. The mothers gained only slightly or lost weight during the gestation period and 3 to 26% died during the latter half of pregnancy. Increasing the deficiency period to 11 to 22 days before breeding resulted in 89 to 100% resorptions or in failure of implantation. Marked losses in maternal body weight and increased maternal mortality also occurred with the increased length of deficiency. The failure of pair-fed controls to exhibit normal reproductive performance demonstrated that restriction in food intake was related to the reproductive disturbances produced by the thiamine-deficient diet. The food intake for thiamine-deficient animals averaged 29% of that for ad libitum controls, a degree of food restriction greater than that observed for any other dietary deficiency previously studied during pregnancy. The synthetic ovarian hormones were tested for maintenance of pregnancy during the first 13 days of gestation in thiamine-deficient rats with 11 to 15 days of deficiency prior to breeding. Daily injection of 1 to 3 µg of estrone resulted in living young in 35% of the animals, whereas only 18% of the uninjected rats had living young. Injection of 4 to 6 mg of progesterone resulted in living young in 80% of the animals, and the combination of 0.5 to 1.0 μg of estrone with 4 mg of progesterone maintained pregnancy in 96% of the thiamine-deficient rats. Pregnancy was maintained by this combination of hormones notwithstanding the usual marked reduction in food intake.