Abstract:

The purpose of this study was to observe the effect of prepartum supplementation of zinc threoninate (Thr-Zn) for pregnant rats on the growth performance of their offspring. Forty pregnant SD rats were randomly divided into five groups. Thr-Zn at high, medium and low doses during the sixth to fifteenth day of pregnancy was orally administered to the three experimental groups of animals, respectively. After the newborn rats were routinely fed to one month of age, the growth indicators and the expression of growth-related genes were evaluated. Compared with the control group, body weights of the offspring rats from each dose group increased significantly (P < 0.05). In addition, the mRNA expression levels of zinc transporter 1 (ZnT1) and insulin-like growth factor 1 (IGF1) were increased significantly (P < 0.05). The expression of insulin-like growth factor receptor (IGF1R) exhibited the same trend as IGF1. Therefore, the growth performance of offspring rats could be improved, and the mRNA expression levels of ZnT1, IGF1 and IGF1R could be increased significantly by prepartum zinc supplementation.

Key words: zinc threoninate, zinc transporter 1 (ZnT1), insulin-like growth factor 1 (IGF1), insulin-like growth factor receptor, relative gene expression level