Neonatal nutrition and longitudinal growth in baboons: Adiposity measured by skinfold thickness

This paper reports the results of a 5 year longitudinal experiment that (1) examined growth in adiposity of a group of 48 clinically normal olive savannah baboons (Papio cynocephalus anubis) who were randomly assigned at birth to one of three diet treatments that differed, during the first 16 weeks, in the amount of nutrients they provided; (2) tested the hypothesis that different amounts of food availability during the neonatal period (birth to 16 weeks) had a significant effect on growth and development of adiposity in the subsequent infant, juvenile, and adolescent periods; and (3) evaluated the extent to which underfed (LC) and overfed (HC) subjects were capable of growth canalization. Each diet contained different caloric densities but the same proportion of fat (34%), carbohydrate (55%), and protein (11%). All animals were fed the same volume of formula; however, HC subject were fed 40% more calories than MC subjects, who were fed 40% more calories than the LC subjects. Growth and development of adiposity were assessed by measuring neck, triceps, subscapular, and suprailiac skinfolds weekly from birth to 16 weeks and at 13 week intervals from 26 to 260 weeks of age. We found that during the first 16 weeks of the experiments, baboon growth was strongly influenced by food shortages but not by excesses; however, when the dietary treatment ceased, growth appeared to be strongly regulated by a genetic component (developmental canalization) and tended to return to a more normal growth pattern within a 26 week time frame. Males and females exhibited differences in adipose development in that males did not exhibit residual treatment effects while females tended to retain the effects of neonatal dietary treatments through early adolescence.