This work was undertaken to study the effects of malnutrition during preg­nancy on the postnatal development of the kidney in white rat offspring.
The female rats used in this inves­tigation were housed with the males and vaginal smear was done daily. The pregnant ones were divided into two groups kept on two dietary regi­mens ;the first were fed on milk, wa­ter and bread, while the second on water, sugar and starch from the first day of conception till delivary. Fifteen offsprings from the first group (normal diet) and Fifteen from the second group (carbohydrate diet) were scari­fied at 1day, 2 weeks and one month.
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The animals were weighed, the kid­neys were gently dissected out from the abdominal cavity and dropped into the fixative then weighed and the kidneys to body weight ratio was cal­culated, tabulated statistically and an­alysed. Paraffin sections of 5-^m thickness were prepared from the kid­neys of all animals. Different histofogi-cal stains were used and the kidneys were examined microscopicallyCompared to the control animals, both the body weight and kidney weight in the malnourished animals showed a significant reduction