Maternal cafeteria diet facilitates ejaculatory performance and alters sexually dimorphic brain regions in adult male...

Maternal diet critically influences offspring development, yet the long-term consequences of perinatal exposure to a cafeteria-type hypercaloric diet (CHD) on adult sexual behavior remain incompletely understood.

This study investigated the effects of maternal exposure to a CHD during gestation and lactation on sexual behavior and sexually dimorphic brain regions in adult male rat offspring.

Wistar dams were assigned to either a CHD or a standard diet (SD) for eight weeks encompassing pregnancy and lactation. In adulthood, half of the male offspring were evaluated for sexual behavior on postnatal days (PD) 90, 94, 98, 102, and 106, whereas the remaining males were kept sexually naïve. On PD 107, brains were collected and processed for Nissl staining to quantify the area of the sexually dimorphic nucleus of the preoptic area (SDN-POA), ventromedial hypothalamic nucleus (VMH), and medial amygdala (MeA).

Male offspring from CHD dams exhibited shorter ejaculation latency and a higher proportion of ejaculators during the first trials compared with SD offspring. Additionally, CHD offspring showed reduced SDN-POA and MeA areas, together with an enlarged VMH.

These findings indicate that maternal exposure to a CHD during critical developmental periods induces long-lasting alterations in male sexual behavior and sexually dimorphic brain structures, suggesting that early nutritional environment contributes to neurobehavioral programming in adulthood.