Metal ion content of internal organs in the calorically restricted Wistar rat.

Background: Despite the agreed principle that access to food is a human right, undernourishment and metal ion deficiencies are public health problems worldwide, exacerbated in impoverished or war-affected areas. It is known that maternal malnutrition causes growth retardation and affects behavioral and cognitive development of the newborn. Here we ask whether severe caloric restriction leads per se to disrupted metal accumulation in different organs of the Wistar rat.

Cord dorsum potentials evoked by electroacupuncture applied to the hind limbs of rats.

The longitudinal distribution of the cord dorsum potentials (CDPs) produced by electroacupuncture (EA) stimulation at acupuncture points (APs) located on the hind limbs of rats was analyzed in this study. Single electrical pulses (0.05 ms, 1 Hz) applied to the bladder (BL) and the gallbladder (GB) APs produced CDPs on several spinal segments and were composed of the following four components: an afferent volley, two negative components (N1 and N2), and one positive component (P wave).

Histoenzymatic and morphometric analysis of muscle fiber type transformation during the postnatal development of the chronically food-deprived rat.

We analyze the effect of chronic undernourishment on extensor digitorum longus (EDL) muscle maturation in the rat. Cytochrome c oxidase (COX) and alkaline ATPase histoenzymatic techniques were used to determine the relative proportion of different fiber types (oxidative/glycolytic and type I, IIa/IId, or IIb, respectively) and their cross-sectional area in control and undernourished EDL muscles at several postnatal (PN) ages. From PN days 15 to 45, undernourished EDL muscles showed predominance of oxidative and type IIa/IId fibers, but from PN days 60 to 90, there were a larger proportion of oxidative fibers and an equal proportion of type IIa/IId and IIb fibers.

Endogenous content and release of [(3)H]-GABA and [(3)H]-glutamate in the spinal cord of chronically undernourished rat.

The aim of this study was to determine the effect of chronic undernutrition on the content and release of γ-amino butyric acid (GABA) and glutamate (GLU) transmitters in the rat spinal cord. The release of [(3)H]-GABA and [(3)H]-GLU was determined by radioactive liquid scintillation techniques, and the concentrations of GABA and GLU in spinal cord preparations from control and undernourished young rats (50-60 days old) were measured by reverse-phase HPLC. The GABA and GLU contents in the lumbar spinal dorsal horn (L6 segment) were significantly lower in undernourished rats relative to control rats (22.