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Exposure to a High-Fat Diet during Early Development Programs Behavior and Impairs the Central Serotonergic System in
Jacqueline R Thompson1,2, Jeanette C Valleau1,2, Ashley N Barling3
1Division of Neuroscience, Oregon National Primate Research Center, Beaverton, OR, United States.
Insights
Maternal high-fat diet (HFD) exposure during pregnancy programs offspring for increased anxiety and altered brain development. Early nutritional intervention post-weaning did not fully reverse these negative impacts on mental health.
Area of Science:
- Neuroscience
- Developmental Biology
- Nutritional Science
Background:
- Maternal obesity and high-fat diet (HFD) consumption during pregnancy pose metabolic risks to offspring.
- These dietary factors can also impact offspring brain development and mental health outcomes.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate the long-term effects of perinatal high-fat diet (HFD) exposure on offspring behavior and neurodevelopment using a non-human primate model.
- To assess the efficacy of early nutritional intervention in mitigating HFD-induced changes.
Main Methods:
- Utilized a non-human primate model to study offspring exposed to maternal HFD.
- Observed behavioral changes, cortisol stress response, and central serotonin synthesis (tryptophan hydroxylase-2 mRNA expression).
- Examined serotonergic immunoreactivity in the prefrontal cortex.
Main Results:
- Offspring exposed to maternal HFD exhibited persistent anxiety.
- Postweaning HFD consumption increased anxiety and stereotypic behaviors.
- Behavioral changes correlated with altered cortisol response and impaired central serotonin synthesis, including reduced serotonergic immunoreactivity in the prefrontal cortex.
Conclusions:
- Perinatal HFD exposure programs offspring brain and endocrine systems, leading to behavioral impairments linked to mental health and neurodevelopmental disorders.
- Early nutritional intervention (control diet at weaning) was insufficient to reverse many HFD-induced behavioral changes, such as increased anxiety.
- Findings highlight significant implications for future generations' mental health due to widespread dietary fat consumption and maternal obesity.
Abstract:
Perinatal exposure to maternal obesity and high-fat diet (HFD) consumption not only poses metabolic risks to offspring but also impacts brain development and mental health. Using a non-human primate model, we observed a persistent increase in anxiety in juvenile offspring exposed to a maternal HFD. Postweaning HFD consumption also increased anxiety and independently increased stereotypic behaviors. These behavioral changes were associated with modified cortisol stress response and impairments in the development of the central serotonin synthesis, with altered tryptophan hydroxylase-2 mRNA expression in the dorsal and median raphe. Postweaning HFD consumption decreased serotonergic immunoreactivity in area 10 of the prefrontal cortex. These results suggest that perinatal exposure to HFD consumption programs development of the brain and endocrine system, leading to behavioral impairments associated with mental health and neurodevelopmental disorders. Also, an early nutritional intervention (consumption of the control diet at weaning) was not sufficient to ameliorate many of the behavioral changes, such as increased anxiety, that were induced by maternal HFD consumption. Given the level of dietary fat consumption and maternal obesity in developed nations these findings have important implications for the mental health of future generations.
