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Rats, deprived of maternal contact and nutrition every alternate day starting on day 5 of life, attained a body weight at 45 days of age which was 50% of that of rats which had free access to maternal contact and nutrition. After 55 days of unrestricted food availability the body weight of the neonatally deprived rats was approximately 15% lower than that of the controls. Malnourished female rats showed normal behavioural oestrous cycles and became pregnant and lactated normally as young adults. After ovariectomy they showed higher lordosis quotients in response to treatment with oestradiol benzoate and progesterone than controls but lost less body weight in response to treatment with oestradiol-filled constant-release implants. Malnourished male rats ejaculated less frequently than controls in tests with sexually receptive female rats but this difference disappeared with repeated testing. The malnourished males showed longer ejaculation latencies and had somewhat higher serum concentrations of LH than controls after castration and treatment with testosterone-filled constant-release implants which reduced serum androgen concentrations to about 30% of the intact level. The results show that rats are capable of sustaining a rather severe neonatal nutritional deprivation without losing the capacity for essentially normal mating behaviour in adulthood.

J. Endocr. (1985) 104, 427–431