Postnatal development of argyrophilic nucleolar organizer regions in the mammillary body of undernourished rats.

The effects of undernutrition during pregnancy and/or lactation periods on cortical structures have already been reported. However, its effect on non-cortical areas like the hypothalamic, that participates in the regulation of the autonomic nervous system or food intake, has not been extensively investigated. We studied the postnatal development of the medial mammillary nucleus (hypothalamus) in the rat offspring that had a dietary restriction in utero and during lactation. The argyrophilic nucleolar regions (Ag-NORs), that represent the transcriptional activity of the cell, were quantified in their neurons. No statistically significant differences were found in the results between the control and undernourished groups in the ages studied (7, 14, 21 and 30 days). However, a delay in the neuronal activity of the latter group was observed. A critical period in the development of this nucleus, at about 21 days of age, was also seen in both groups. After this age, the activity levels remained steady.