Stevens Karen E, Adams Catherine E, Mellott Tiffany J, Robbins Emily, Kisley Michael A
Medical Research Service, Department of Veterans Affairs Medical Center, Denver, CO, USA.
Brain Res. 2008 Oct 27;1237:84-90. doi: 10.1016/j.brainres.2008.08.047. Epub 2008 Aug 28.
Adequate choline levels in rodents during gestation have been shown to be critical to several functions, including certain learning and memory functions, when tested at adulthood. Choline is a selective agonist for the alpha7 nicotinic receptor which appears in development before acetylcholine is present. Normal sensory inhibition is dependent, in part, upon sufficient numbers of this receptor in the hippocampus. The present study assessed sensory inhibition in Sprague-Dawley rats gestated on normal (1.1 g/kg), deficient (0 g/kg) or supplemented (5 g/kg) choline in the maternal diet during the critical period for cholinergic cell development (E12-18). Rats gestated on deficient choline showed abnormal sensory inhibition when tested at adulthood, while rats gestated on normal or supplemented choline showed normal sensory inhibition. Assessment of hippocampal alpha-bungarotoxin to visualize nicotinic alpha7 receptors revealed no difference between the gestational choline levels. These data suggest that attention to maternal choline levels for human pregnancy may be important to the normal functioning of the offspring.
研究表明，啮齿动物在妊娠期摄入足够的胆碱对其成年后的多种功能至关重要，包括某些学习和记忆功能。胆碱是α7烟碱受体的选择性激动剂，该受体在发育过程中出现在乙酰胆碱之前。正常的感觉抑制部分依赖于海马体中足够数量的这种受体。本研究评估了在胆碱能细胞发育的关键时期（胚胎第12 - 18天），母鼠饮食中胆碱含量正常（1.1 g/kg）、缺乏（0 g/kg）或补充（5 g/kg）的情况下，斯普拉格-道利大鼠的感觉抑制情况。成年后测试发现，妊娠期胆碱缺乏的大鼠感觉抑制异常，而妊娠期胆碱正常或补充胆碱的大鼠感觉抑制正常。用海马α-银环蛇毒素评估烟碱α7受体，结果显示不同妊娠期胆碱水平之间无差异。这些数据表明，关注人类孕期母体内的胆碱水平可能对后代的正常功能很重要。
