EFFECTS OF EARLY MARGINAL METHIONINE-CHOLINE DEPRIVATION ON THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE IMMUNE SYSTEM IN THE RAT

The dams of Wistar-Lewis rats (inbred) were marginally deprived of methionine and choline during either: gestation, lactation, or gestation and lactation combined. At weaning, all offspring were placed on a control diet. The rats whose dams had been deprived during both gestation and lactation exhibited as adults: an increased susceptibility to Salmonella typhimurium, a decreased stimulation of splenic lymphocytes with concanavalin A and of thymocytes with pokeweed mitogen, a depressed response to phytohemagglutinin skin testing, a decrease in stimulation of nonimmune splenic lymphocytes with alloantigen, and a decrease in the primary immune response to sheep red blood cells. Rats whose dams were deprived during gestation exhibited only a decrease in the primary immune response to sheep red blood cells. Rats whose dams were deprived during lactation did not exhibit a decrease in the primary immune response to sheep red blood cells; however, they exhibited a depressed stimulation index when splenic lymphocytes were exposed to some concentration of phytohemagglutinin and concanavalin A, and a decreased response to phytohemagglutinin skin testing. When the offspring of dams deprived during any of the periods tested were sensitized in vivo with allogenic lymphocytes, none of the groups exhibited differences from control offspring in delayed hypersensitivity, cell-mediated cytotoxicity, antibody-complement-dependent cytotoxicity, or in the ability of their sera to induce antibody-dependent cell-mediated cytotoxicity, or in the ability of their sera to induce antibody-dependent cell-mediated cytotoxicity in nonimmune control splenic lymphocytes.