Neural stem cells as potential mediators of prenatal dietary stress through epigenetic mechanisms

The developmental origins of health and disease (DOHaD) hypothesis suggests that environmental exposures during development can induce long-term health effects, yet the cellular origin of such persistence remains unclear. Here, we suggest that neural stem cells (NSCs) may develop aberrant properties that persist with possible involvement of epigenetic mechanisms linking maternal dietary stress to neurocognitive impairments. In a rat model of maternal high-fructose corn syrup intake, offspring showed hippocampus-dependent memory deficits and reduced neurogenesis. NSCs from fetal and adolescent hippocampi exhibited persistent dysfunction with transcriptomic dysregulation. Mechanistically, transient downregulation of DNA methyltransferase 3A in fetal NSCs was associated with sustained repression of secreted phosphoprotein 1, encoding intracellular osteopontin (iOPN). iOPN overexpression partially restored NSC function, supporting a potential causal link. Our study proposes a DOHaD framework in which stem cells with lasting alterations may retain epigenetic traces of early life stress, with implications for organ systems and disease risk.