Prenatal cerebral development: effect of restricted diet, reversal by growth hormone.

Caloric restriction of rats from day 10 to day 20 of pregnancy results in significant decreases in body weight, placental weight, cerebral weight, cerebral DNA, and cerebral protein of the offspring at birth. These decreases did not usually occur if mothers on the restricted diet were treated concomitantly with bovine growth hormone. If growth hormone did not cross the placenta, then, it is postulated, at least one effect of growth hormone was the mobilization of maternal nutrient reserves.