Retention and utilization of thiamin by gravid and non gravid rats with varying dietary thiamin supply.

The intention of this paper was to examine a retention of thiamin by gravid and non gravid rats and to test also whether there is an anabolism of the gravids. For this purpose a trial with 176 rats was designed in a two-factorial model (2x11x8) with the factors gravid versus non gravid and 11 different dietary thiamin concentrations of 0/0 (gravid/non gravid), 0.8/1, 1.7/2, 3.3/4, 6.7/8, 13.3/16, 20.0/24, 26.7/32, 100/120, 1000/1200, 10,000/12,00o mg thiamin per kg diet. The daily thiamin intake of the gravids and non gravids was the same. The experiment lasted until the 20th day of gestation. Liver, brain and musculus quadriceps, the reproductive organs and also the whole carcass were examined for their thiamin contents. At the beginning of the experiment 12 animals were sacrificed to get their starting contents. Liver thiamin retention was significantly influenced by the dietary supply, also by gestation and by the interaction of both factors. For the gravids, a mean daily anabolism of 1.5 micrograms occurred in the liver. In brain a negative retention of 4-8% occurred during the experiment, which was significantly less in the gravids. In muscle dietary supply was of significant influence, gestation, however, decreased muscle retention in gravids. In whole carcass the gravids retained 81 micrograms and the non gravids 61 micrograms (P less than 0.05). Anabolism occurred from 3.3 mg dietary thiamin per kg (46 micrograms daily intake) and plateaued at about 30 mg or 1.5 micrograms daily until 100 ppm dietary thiamin. Thiamin utilization remains below 10% in all groups.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)