Chronic Feeding of a Low Boron Diet Adversely Affects Reproduction and Development in Xenopus laevis

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Abstract
The aims of this work were as follows: 1) to determine whether a purified diet currently used for studies with rats was acceptable for reproductive studies in frogs; and 2) to determine whether frogs are sensitive to a deficit of boron (B) in the diet. Adult Xenopus laevis were fed a nonpurified beef liver and lung (BLL) diet (310 μg B/kg), a purified diet supplemented with boron (+B; 1850 μg B/kg), or a purified diet low in boron (−B; 45 μg B/kg) for 120 d. Frogs fed the BLL and +B diets produced 11.3 and 12.2% necrotic eggs, respectively. Abnormal gastrulation occurred in 80% of the embryos died before 96 h of development. Mean embryo cell counts at X. laevis developmental stage 7.5 (mid-blastula) were significantly lower in the −B embryos than in the BLL or +B embryos. BLL and −B embryos grown in low boron culture media had a high frequency of malformations compared with embryos grown in boron-supplemented media. These studies show that a purified diet that has been used in rodent studies was acceptable for reproduction studies in X. laevis. This work also demonstrates that a diet low in boron markedly impairs normal reproductive function in adult X. laevis, and that administration of the low boron diet results in an increase in both incidence and severity of adverse effects. In addition, these studies demonstrate the usefulness of the X. laevis model in nutrition studies.

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