Functional vulnerability of developing central nervous system to maternal thiamine deficiencies in the rat

Thiamine deficiency (B1 vitamin) was induced during three periods of rat central nervous system (CNS) ontogenesis. Females were fed a thiamine deficient diet such that developing offspring were exposed either to pre‐, peri‐, or postnatal thiamine deficiency. To control the effects of undernourishment generated by different thiamine deficiencies, every treatment group had its own pair‐fed control pup from a non drug‐treated but undernourished dam. Seven different developmental abilities (exploratory activity, emotional reaction, hind paws lifting reflex, wire grasping times, crawling and leap execution latencies, and nociception) were recorded in the offspring from the 10th to the 45th postnatal day. The vulnerability of developing brain to the specific lack of B1 vitamin increases from prenatal (28%) to perinatal (43%) and postnatal periods (57%). © 2005 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Dev Psychobiol 47: 408–414, 2005.