Offspring are frequently raised alongside their siblings and are provisioned early in life by adults. Adult provisioning is stimulated by offspring begging, but it is unclear how each offspring should beg, given the begging behaviour of their siblings. It has previously been suggested that siblings may compete directly through begging for a fixed level of provisioning, or that siblings may coop...

OBJECTIVE To evaluate the effects of physical training of mother rats during pregnancy associated with a low-protein diet offered during pregnancy and lactation on the development and growth of the femur of their offspring. METHODS Forty 90-day old male Wistar rats were divided into four groups: pups of sedentary nourished mothers, pups of sedentary malnourished mothers, pups of trained nouri...

Two studies compared the glucose responses of 9-day-old rats given subcutaneous insulin, either continuously or via daily injection, for 10 days. In Experiment 1, implanted pellets released a total of 0, 1.9, or 5.7 U insulin/kg the first 24 h. Injected doses were larger, 0 or 8 U/kg. Injections caused no deaths, but insulin-releasing pellets caused high mortality within 24 h. Pups surviving th...

The development of taste aversion learning to novel cues contained in mother's milk was examined in rat pups. Pups receiving distinctive mild by experimenter-delivered oral infusions followed by toxicosis formed an aversion to the dam's diet. Robust aversions were learned as early as Day 10 and were retained for at least 11 days. When the same distinctive milk was obtained directly from a foste...

In biparental mammals, the factors facilitating the onset of male parental behavior are not well understood. While hormonal changes in fathers may play a role, prior experience with pups has also been implicated. We evaluated effects of prior exposure to pups on paternal responsiveness in the biparental California mouse (Peromyscus californicus). We analyzed behavioral, neural, and corticostero...

In this study, we identify 11 mouse pup volatiles putatively involved in maternal care induction adult females. For purpose, have adapted the dynamic headspace methodology to extract volatolome of whole alive animals. Untargeted metabolomic was used compare neonatal (4–6 days) with elder pups until age weaning (21–23 days old). Pup analyzed by gas chromatography (GC) coupled single quadrupole m...

Objective(s): Pioglitazone (PGZ), a peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor gamma (PPAR-γ) agonist, has significant neuroprotective effects and has been reported to regulate inflammatory processes.Materials and Methods: We evaluated the effects of PGZ on febrile seizure (FS) in rat pups. Three groups of male rat pups received intraperitoneal (IP) injections of PGZ (5, 10, and 20 mg/kg). Lipo...

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE Neurovascular damage, including neuronal apoptosis and blood-brain barrier (BBB) damage, and microglia activation account for the hypoxic-ischemia (HI) susceptibility in neonatal brain. The p53 upregulation is involved in apoptosis, endothelial cell damage, and microglia activation. We hypothesized that underweight induced by dietary restriction (DR) protects against HI i...

The effects of dietary sialic acid in dams on the learning abilities of their pups after weaning were investigated using rats deficient in n-3 fatty acids. Nine-week-old female Wistar rats were fed an n-3 fatty acid-deficient diet for 3 wk and were mated at 12 wk of age. During pregnancy and lactation, the female rats were fed the n-3 fatty acid-deficient diet, and were given water or water con...

Newborn offspring of the inbred mouse RR/Sgn strain have a low survival rate prior to weaning. We hypothesized that this is a consequence of an inferior nurturing ability of RR/Sgn mothers and that RR/Sgn mothers have a tendency to lose their pups. We performed quantitative trait locus (QTL) mapping for inferior nurturing ability and tendency to lose pups in RR/Sgn mothers. The number of pups w...