Developmental effects and mineral interactions in rats fed textured vegetable protein

The teratogenic effects of feeding a diet based on textured vegetable protein to Long‐Evans rats were studied along with maternal and fetal mineral interactions and their relationship to diet composition. Pregnant rats were fed purified diets containing 18% protein as casein (CAS), textured vegetable protein (TVP, from defatted soy flour) with 18 mg Zn/kg, or TVP diet with 100 mg Zn/kg. A fourth group was fed diet NIH‐31. The animals received their diets throughout pregnancy and were sacrificed on day 20 of gestation. Fetuses were examined for developmental effects, and mineral levels were determined in maternal and fetal tissues by inductively coupled argon plasma–atomic emission spectrometry. Females fed the casein diet or diet NIH‐31 had normal weight gains throughout pregnancy and their progeny exhibited normal development. The animals on the TVP‐containing diet with 18 mg Zn/kg had decreased food consumption and body weights, and their fetuses exhibited developmental anomalies as well as reductions in size and weight. These developmental alterations may be the result of decreased zinc levels in the fetal tissues, caused by reduced bioavailability of the trace element in the maternal diet. Significant increases in tissue iron accompanied the low zinc levels. No developmental effects were found in animals receiving the high Zn‐TVP diet, and mineral data from these animals were not significantly different from the casein group.