MATERNAL HIGH FAT DIET DURING LACTATION: A NEURODEVELOPMENTAL AND MORFOBEHAVIORAL STUDY.

• Grant number: 11/15329-2
• Support type: Scholarships in Brazil - Master
• Effective date (Start): March 01, 2012
• Effective date (End): November 30, 2012
• Field of knowledge: Biological Sciences - Physiology - Physiology of Organs and Systems
• Principal researcher: Alexandre Valotta da Silva
• Grantee: Catherine Ássuka Giriko
• Home Institution: Instituto de Saúde e Sociedade (ISS). Universidade Federal de São Paulo (UNIFESP). Campus Baixada Santista. Santos , SP, Brazil

Abstract

Nutritional manipulation during pregnancy and/or lactation periods can induce morphological changes to growth and development nervous system, and is considerer an important inducer of the "programming". Thus, the present study investigated possible changes: in somatic development (body weight, body length, mediolateral and anteroposterior head axis ), physical-feature maturation (auditory conduit opening [ACO], eye opening [EO] and eruption of the lower incisors [ELI]) and sensory motor development (palmar grasp [PG], righting [R], vibrissa placing [VP], cliff avoidance [CA], auditory startle [AS], negative geotaxis [NG], free-fall righting [FR] ) in neonatal rats suckled by female rats fed control diet or high fat diet during the lactation period (1 to 21 days postnatal). At 60 and 90 days, pups will be subjected to experimental models of depression and aggression, through behavioral tests of forced swimming and foot shocks, respectively. After behavioral tests, animals will be perfused and their brains will be removed from the skull and will be measured: the weight of the brain, the mediolateral axis and anteroposterior right and left hemispheres. One out three frozen sections will be histologically processed for Nissl staining as cytoarchitecture control to evaluate morphometric parameters of dorsal raphe nucleus neurons (area in mm2, maximum, mean and minimum diameter values and perimeter in micrometers).

Scientific publications

(References retrieved automatically from Web of Science and SciELO through information on FAPESP grants and their corresponding numbers as mentioned in the publications by the authors)

MENDES-DA-SILVA, CRISTIANO; GIRIKO, CATHERINE ASSUKA; MENNITTI, LAIS VALES; HOSOUME, LILIAN FAZION; SOUTO, TAYANE DOS SANTOS; DA SILVA, ALEXANDRE VALOTTA. Maternal high-fat diet during pregnancy or lactation changes the somatic and neurological development of the offspring. Arquivos de Neuro-Psiquiatria, v. 72, n. 2, p. 136-144, FEB 2014. Web of Science Citations: 20.

GIRIKO, CATHERINE ASSUKA; ANDREOLI, CARLA ALBUQUERQUE; MENNITTI, LAIS VALES; HOSOUME, LILIAN FAZION; SOUTO, TAYANE DOS SANTOS; DA SILVA, ALEXANDRE VALOTTA; MENDES-DA-SILVA, CRISTIANO. Delayed physical and neurobehavioral development and increased aggressive and depression-like behaviors in the rat offspring of dams fed a high-fat diet. INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF DEVELOPMENTAL NEUROSCIENCE, v. 31, n. 8, p. 731-739, DEC 2013. Web of Science Citations: 21.