IS USE OF A CELLULOSE-DILUTED DIET A VIABLE ALTERNATIVE TO PAIR-FEEDING

Pair-feeding (PF) has been traditionally used as a nutrition control f or drugs that reduce food intake during pregnancy. This method of diet ary restriction has been shown to induce alterations in the behavior a nd physiology of the dams, with some consequent effects on their offsp ring. Dams treated with cocaine typically exhibit a transient reductio n in food intake lasting 3-5 days. A novel nutritional control, using a cellulose-diluted diet, was developed to control for this transient anorexia without requiring explicit food restriction. Daily body weigh ts and food and water intake were measured in Sprague-Dawley dams that received subcutaneous injections of 40 mg/kg/3 cc of cocaine hydrochl oride (C40) daily on gestational day 8-20, pair-fed (PF) dams that wer e injected with saline, and nontreated control dams (LC). In addition, another group of dams were placed on a powdered chow diet diluted wit h cellulose (40% by weight) and were injected with saline from gestati onal day 8-20 (NC). Both the food intake and body weight gain of NC an d PF dams closely matched that of C40 dams. NC dams were more similar in water intake to cocaine-treated dams than PF dams. However, offspri ng of NC dams exhibited a significant reduction in pup body weight on postnatal day 1 when compared to PF, LC, and C40 offspring, a finding which limits the usefulness of this novel nutritional control procedur e. Thus, pair-feeding still appears to be the best available method fo r controlling the nutritional consequences of developmental toxicants.