Amino acid imbalance and embroyonic development - abstract

ABSTRACT

The effects of the essential amino acid leucine on maternal reproductive capacity and embryonic development in the rat were investigated. Leucine, 15 mg/kg body weight, was administered intraperitoneally to two groups of pregnant rats from the first through the sixth day, and from the sixth through the ninth day of gestation respectively. Control animals received physiological saline over the same gestational period. A high incidence and a wide spectrum of congenital abnormalities were induced in the leucine-treated rats; the incidence of embryonic death and foetal resorption was also significantly increased following treatment with leucine (P < 0.001). Skeletal malformations were present in a number of instances, but no microscopic changes were observed in the foetal organs studied. The embryopathic activity ofleucine may be due to an imbalance in the "amino acid pool" which is available for protein synthesis during embryonic development(AU)