Low-Salt Intake during Mating or Gestation in Rats Is Associated with Low Birth and Survival Rates of Babies

Table 1

Number of mothers that delivered pups.

Group	Diet		Mother			Statistics
	Mating	Pregnant	Total	Delivered	Babies/mother*			Versus
	(NaCl, w/w)	(NaCl, w/w)	(rats)	(rats)	(rats)
MHPR	4.0%	0.75%	7	7
MLPR	0.3%	0.75%	7	4		3.82	0.050	MHPR
MRPR	0.75%	0.75%	8	7		0.94	0.332	MHPR
						1.76	0.184	MLPR
						1.45	0.228	MRPH
						2.33	0.127	MRPL
MRPH	0.75%	4.0%	11	11
MRPL	0.75%	0.3%	11	6		6.87	0.011	MRPH

MHPR: mothers fed the high-salt diet during mating period and the regular chow during pregnancy period; MLPR: mothers fed the low-salt diet during mating period and the regular chow during pregnancy period; MRPR: mothers fed the regular chow during mating period and during pregnancy period; MRPH: mothers fed the regular chow during mating period and the high-salt diet pregnant period; MRPL: mothers fed the regular chow during mating period and the low-salt diet during pregnant period. Total: the total number of mothers; delivered: the number of mothers that gave birth to pups. The differences in delivered mothers were assessed by test (df = 1). 0.75% NaCl (w/w) chow is usually used for maintaining rat colonies.
*: number of rats delivered per mother.