Maternal Nutrition and Hydrocephalus in Newborn Rats.

Observations on the Experimental Production of Malformations of the Central Nervous System*

“…In some experiments vitamin antagonists have been used in addition to deficient diets. Hydrocephalic young have been produced by the use of a folic acid antagonist by Hogan, O'Dell and Whitley (1950). Nelson, Baird, Wright and Evans (1956) have employed a ribofiavin antagonist, galactofiavin, in rats and obtained hydrocephalic offspring.…”

Antibodies to folate receptors impair embryogenesis and fetal development in the rat

“…Richardson and Hogan (1946) identified hydrocephalus in 1.7% of the offspring of rats fed a synthetic diet, and O'Dell et al (1948) observed that the addition of FA to this diet reduced this incidence from 1.9% to 0.1%. The addition of an antifolate to folate‐deficient diets increased the incidence of hydrocephalus in rats from 1% to 20% (Hogan et al, 1950). Folate‐deficient diets administered to pregnant rats by several different protocols also caused embryo resorptions, growth retardation, decreased fetal weight, neural tube defects (NTDs), and craniofacial, cardiovascular, and other congenital defects (Nelson and Evans, 1947, 1949; Nelson et al, 1952, 1955, 1956, 1957; Nelson, 1960; Tagbo and Hill, 1976; Raynaud and Horvath, 1994).…”

Experimental Congenital Hydrocephalus

“…Later Hogan el cd. [49] noted hydrocephalus in about 20% of the offspring when a folic acid inhibitor, crude methylpteroylglutamic acid, was added to a diet which contained soybean oil meal as the source of the protein. The original casein diet consumed during the pre-experimental period had a preventive effect on the incidence of hy drocephalus among the first few litters produced by each dam, which sug gested that a protective factor -thought to be vitamin B,2 -might be stored in the body of mother rats fed a casein diet.…”