RT Journal Article
T1 Sex-Specific Anxiety and Prefrontal Cortex Glutamatergic Dysregulation Are Long-Term Consequences of Pre-and Postnatal Exposure to Hypercaloric Diet in a Rat Model
A1 Rivera, Patricia
A1 Tovar, Rubén
A1 Ramírez López, María Teresa
A1 Navarro, Juan Antonio
A1 Vargas, Antonio
A1 Suárez, Juan
A1 Rodríguez De Fonseca, Fernando Antonio
AB Both maternal and early life malnutrition can cause long-term behavioral changes in the offspring, which depends on the caloric availability and the timing of the exposure. Here we investigated in a rat model whether a high-caloric palatable diet given to the mother and/or to the offspring during the perinatal and/or postnatal period might dysregulate emotional behavior and prefrontal cortex function in the offspring at adult age. To this end, we examined both anxiety responses and the mRNA/protein expression of glutamatergic, GABAergic and endocannabinoid signaling pathways in the prefrontal cortex of adult offspring. Male animals born from mothers fed the palatable diet, and who continued with this diet after weaning, exhibited anxiety associated with an overexpression of the mRNA of Grin1, Gria1 and Grm5 glutamate receptors in the prefrontal cortex. In addition, these animals had a reduced expression of the endocannabinoid system, the main inhibitory retrograde input to glutamate synapses, reflected in a decrease of the Cnr1 receptor and the Nape-pld enzyme. In conclusion, a hypercaloric maternal diet induces sex-dependent anxiety, associated with alterations in both glutamatergic and cannabinoid signaling in the prefrontal cortex, which are accentuated with the continuation of the palatable diet during the life of the offspring.
PB MDPI
SN 2072-6643
YR 2020
FD 2020-06-19
LK https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.14352/8354
UL https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.14352/8354
LA eng
NO Instituto de Salud Carlos III/Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación (MICINN)/FEDER
DS Docta Complutense
RD 6 abr 2025