Protein and taurine of maternal diets during the mouse neonatal period: permanent effects on cerebellar--brainstem amino acid levels in mature offspring.

Neonatal malnutrition and/or undernutrition of limited duration appears to permanently influence steady state amino acid content of the adult mouse cerebellum and/or brainstem. Some of the changes seem related to the protein content of the milk (glutamine), whereas others reflect the taurine concentration in the milk during the neonatal period (glutamic acid and GABA). Adult levels of taurine, serine, and glycine in the cerebellum-brainstem may in part be influenced by the degree of growth retardation which occurred during the first 16 days of neonatal life. Provided the combined adult weight of the cerebellum and brainstem can be used as one criterion to determine growth retardation during the neonatal period, it appears justified to state that mice do not recover from malnutrition/undernutrition when subjected to such conditions during early infancy.