Dietary thiamin supply during lactation influences thiamin status in lactating rats and their offspring and the thiamin level in milk

This study was conducted to examine the effect of dietary thiamin, ranging from deficient to excessive supplies, on thiamin status of lactating rats and their offspring, and the thiamin level in milk. Therefore, after parturition, rat dams were divided into eight groups of 10 each, and were fed diets with 0, 2, 4, 6, 7, 40, 350 and 3 500 mg/kg thiamin over a total of 13 days during lactation. Milk for determining the thiamin concentration was obtained from day 6 and 13 of lactation. At day 14 of lactation rat dams and their offspring were used to ascertain the thiamin status including transketolase activity of blood, liver and brain, and thiamin concentration in body. Thiamin supplies ranging from deficient to excessive dietary concentrations influenced both the thiamin levels of the lactating dams and their offspring within 13 days. Lactating rat dams fed a thiamin-free diet and their offspring were classified as thiamin-deficient on the basis of growth retardation and a lower activity of transketolase in blood, liver and brain. Within these variables transketolase in blood has been shown to be most sensitive, and reached a plateau feeding 6 mg/kg thiamin. The concentration of thiamin in milk ranged between 0.1 and 19 mg/kg. The findings also show that dietary thiamin had the strongest effect on thiamin in milk obtained from day 6 and 13 of lactation, and a deficient or suboptimal supply with thiamin was therefore not compensated for an intensified transfer of reserved body thiamin into milk. Also thiamin levels in tissues and carcass, which did not show any clear-cut saturation characteristic, increased with increasing dietary thiamin, and this dose- dependence was more marked in blood and liver than in carcass.