Postnatal undernutrition: effect on antral gastrin levels at a later age

Summary In rats undernutrition from birth to 14 days of age resulted in retardation of growth and diminution of antral gastrin concentration. When the 14-day-old undernourished rats were nutritionally rehabilitated, they grew at a faster rate, and at 27 days of age their body weight and the weight of various tissues of the gastrointestinal tract including the antrum reached the levels of the well-nourished littermate controls. In spite of this, antral gastrin concentration was found to be about one-half of that of the well-nourished littermates.Acknowledgments. I am indebted to Professor J. F. Rehfeld of Rigshospitalet, Copenhagen, for his generous supply of gastrin antisera. I whish to thank Mr S. Frandsen for his skilful technical assistance. The work was supported by grants from the Danish Medical Research Council, NOVO Research Fund and Christian den Tiendes Fond, Denmark.