Cross-fostering between normal and sodium-restricted rats: effects
on peripheral gustatory function..
Phillips, Lynnette M., Robert E. Stewart, and David L. Hill.
Department of Psychology, University of Virginia, Charlottesville,
Virginia 22903-2477
APStracts 2:0094R, 1995.
Rats restricted of dietary NaCl prenatally and thereafter exhibit
abnormally low electrophysiological chorda tympani taste responses to
sodium stimuli as adults. Recovery of responses can be induced by
ingestion of NaCl, even at adulthood. To examine whether milk from
sodium-replete mothers enables functional recovery in sodium
-restricted rats, we recorded multi-fiber chorda tympani responses in
adult animals that had been cross fostered during the suckling
period. Sodium-restricted animals cross fostered to control dams for
the first two postnatal weeks did not recover normal sodium
sensitivity. Surprisingly, control pups crossed to sodium-restricted
mothers from postnatal days 1-14 showed an exaggerated response to
NaCl as adults. These results indicate that milk from normal mothers
ingested during the first two postnatal weeks is not sufficient to
restore gustatory function in sodium-restricted rats. Importantly, it
also appears that events occurring during the early suckling period
of control rats determine long-term taste sensitivities to sodium.
Received 31 January 1995; accepted in final form 30 March 1995.
APS Manuscript Number R79-5.
Article publication pending Am. J. Physiol. (Regulatory Integrative
Comp. Physiology).
ISSN 1080-4757 Copyright 1995 The American Physiological Society.
Published in APStracts on 10 April 1995.