Food intake of offspring, evolution of progeny body mass after weaning, and relationship between body mass and food intake.

<p>zz(A) The offspring of control (open circles) and undernourished (filled circles) mothers were given a standard commercial diet from weaning to sacrifice. Data are means ± SEM (n = 14, control; n = 18, programmed). (B) The trajectories of growth in control (open circles) and programmed (filled circles) offspring were described by the function BM_t = BM_asy (1−e^−<i>kt</i>), where BM_t is body mass at each indicated time <i>t</i>, BM_asy corresponds to the asymptotic value of the function and <i>k</i> is the first-order rate constant of growth. T_1/2 was calculated by ln 2/<i>k</i>). Data points correspond to means ± SEM (n = 14, control; n = 18, programmed). The arrow indicates the significantly reduced body mass at weaning. Inset: kidney index calculated as the ratio between kidney mass and body mass (C: control; P: programmed). (C) Data points correspond to the ratio between the food intake at the indicated days (during 24 h) and body mass in control (open circles) and programmed (filled circles) offspring. In (A), (B) and (C): *statistically different from the corresponding control group (P<0.05 or less depending on the age).