Dietary thiamin supply during gestation effects thiamin status of lactating rats and their suckling offspring

This investigation was designed to examine the effect of dietary thiamin supply during gestation on body thiamin status of lactating rats and their suckling offspring, and thiamin in milk from 1 to 13 days postpartum. Therefore, a study over two generations was conducted feeding 2, 6.7 and 20 mg/kg thiamin during gestation and 8 mg/kg thiamin during lactation. Rat dams receiving inadequate thiamin during gestation and their offspring were thiamin-deficient on the basis of reduced activity of transketolase in blood and erythrocytes, which did not reach completely the control level even two weeks postpartum. The thiamin intake during gestation influenced significantly the thiamin levels in tissues of the dams and their offspring. However, the observed dose-dependence remained only for the first days of lactation. The thiamin concentration in milk two days postpartum also reflected the nutritional thiamin status from the pregnant rats, in which the thiamin concentration raised continuously with the duration of the lactation cycle. The data indicate that an adequate thiamin supply during lactation can not completely compensate for an inadequate thiamin supply during gestation, and that necessitates a constant thiamin intake.