[Influence of qualitatively different diets on the reproductive capacity and function of the adrenal cortex in rats...

The effect of a diet rich in protein and the group B vitamins on the function of the ovaries and adrenal cortex, as well as on the reproductive capacity of animals with experimental affection of the liver produced by administration of carbon tetrachloride was studied on 115 mongrel albino female-rats. A high-standard semisynthetic diet devised at the Institute of nutrition of the AMS of the USSR and three isocaloric experimental diets calorifically enriched by 20, 50 and 100 per cent and containing a double amount of the group B vitamins were used in tests. The protein and vitamins enrichment of the diet, although failing to normalize the estrual cycle, neveretheless contributed to a significant reduction of the embryos' death in pregnant animals, the restoration of the reproductive capacity of the rats being directly proportional to the degree of the protein enrichment of the diet. The use of experimental diets helped normalize the adrenal cortex function in pregnant rats with toxic hepatitis, this manifesting itself in the falling amount of corticosterone in the blood serum outflowing from the suprarenals down to the control level.