Endocrine Abstracts

Introduction: Many epidemiological studies have shown that people who are small at birth tend to have higher blood pressure latter in life. In this study we evaluated the relation between salt consumption in pregnant rat with birth weight, weight changes during breeding period, weight in third Months and blood pressure.

Method: Eight groups, each containing 6 mature rats with 200±20 gr weight were selected, Each group contain 5 non-pregnant rats and one male rat, Six concentrations of salt, 0.5, 1, 1.4, 1.6, 1.8 and 2 percent were prepared and used during the period of pre-pregnancy and pregnancy by test groups another test group used distilled water and control group used tap water of Isfahan. Birth weight, weight changes during breeding period, weight in third months were measured exactly.

Result: Birth weight and weight changes process and weight in third month of infants whose mothers had used 0.5 and 1% salt solution showed an increase as compared with control group and other test groups and BP showed a reduction in these groups but 1.4% and higher salt solutions causes low birth weight and weight gain process in these group were slowly and weight’s rats in third months in these groups as compared with control group and above test groups were lighter and infant’s BP in these groups were higher.

Discussion: Nutrition with enough salt in prenatal period has a positive effect on birth weight and weight in third month, pregnant rats which consumed enough salt during pregnancy give birth to more and healthy infants and infant’s BP was normal or lower than normal. But nutrition with excessive amount of salt leads to a reduction in birth weight and weight gain process will not be at normal level in future, weight in third month was lowered and BP increased.