Lactating rats were fed at a level equivalent to 75% of the daily food consumed by controls, which had food available ad libitum, from days 4–14 or from days 4–12 post partum. The underfed mothers lost about 10% of their initial weight whereas control mothers gained weight slightly during this time. The litters (six pups) of underfed mothers gained 20% less weight than those of controls but remained healthy. The milk obtained by the pups from six glands (the remaining six glands had been ligated on day 3) during a timed suckling, plus that subsequently obtained after oxytocin injections to the mother, totalled 7·4± 0·80 g in underfed and 15± 0·62 g in control mothers on day 14, and 6 ± 0·41 g in underfed compared with 8 ±0·50 g in control mothers on day 12. The pups of underfed mothers obtained a significantly greater percentage of the total milk after 10 (30 v. 6%), 15 (84 v. 32%) and 45 (100 v. 57%) min of suckling than did those of control mothers. In two trials for the milk ejection test, the litters of control and underfed mothers were exchanged. The pups of control mothers suckled by underfed mothers in both trials obtained a significantly greater percentage of the total milk (64%) in 15 min than did the pups of underfed mothers suckled by control mothers (25%).
Oxytocin-induced intramammary pressure (IMP) responses recorded under urethane anaesthesia achieved a greater amplitude in underfed than in control mothers in response to each dose (0·4, 0·8 and 1·6 mu.) of oxytocin administered intravenously. The average slope of the dose–response curve was 1·25 cm H2O/0·1 mu. oxytocin compared with 0·75cm H2O/0·1 mu. for fed mothers. The amplitude of the IMP in response to a 1·6 mu. dose of oxytocin also was greater in underfed mothers over a range of volumes of milk added incrementally to empty glands. The difference was most striking at low volumes of milk (0·2–0·6 ml) within the gland. The data from these experiments suggest the more rapid transfer of milk from mother to pups in underfed rats is due at least in part to adaptations within the mammary gland, possibly involving reductions in the sympathetic-mediated tone of mammary ducts.
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