Maternal state affects intestinal changes of rat pups at weaning

Two treatments of hooded rat (Rattus norvegicus) mothers after the birth of their pups affected the stage of development at which their pups started to take solid food and showed an increase in the expression of sucrase, an enzyme needed for digesting solid food. The pups of mothers that became pregnant in a post-partum oestrus showed the changes significantly earlier than those in the control group (Fig. 1A, B). The pups of mothers that had been mildly food-restricted after birth showed the changes significantly later than those in the control group. In brief, the pups of the pregnant mothers weaned first, the control pups next and those of food-restricted mothers weaned last. Differences in the timing of weaning between the three groups occurred in the absence of differences in pup body weight at the time of weaning. Within each experimental group, on the day in which sucrase expression showed the first detectable increase, sucrase activity was strongly predicted by the weight of the pups shortly after birth (Fig. 3). Pregnant mothers put on weight rapidly before implantation and their pups prepared for early weaning even though they did not differ in body weight from control pups (Fig. 4A, B). Food-restricted mothers were significantly lighter than control mothers and, with lighter pups before weaning started, settled for a longer period of suckling.