Speight Abigail, Davey William G, McKenna Emily, Voigt Jörg-Peter W
School of Veterinary Medicine and Science, University of Nottingham, Sutton Bonington, Loughborough LE12 5RD, UK.
School of Veterinary Medicine and Science, University of Nottingham, Sutton Bonington, Loughborough LE12 5RD, UK.
Int J Dev Neurosci. 2017 Apr;57:34-40. doi: 10.1016/j.ijdevneu.2016.12.005. Epub 2016 Dec 23.
The early postnatal period is a sensitive period in rodents as behavioural systems are developing and maturing during this time. However, little is currently known about the behavioural effects of feeding a hyper-energetic cafeteria diet (CD) during the lactational period when offspring behaviour is tested during early adolescence. To this end, 23days old offspring from dams (Wistar) fed on CD during lactation were tested in either the open-field or the elevated plus-maze for exploration and anxiety-related behaviour. On postnatal day 9, maternal behaviour and non-maternal behaviour of the dam was assessed. It was hypothesized that lactational CD feeding would reduce anxiety in the offspring. CD-fed dams had a higher energy intake, due to an overconsumption of sugars and fats. When offspring from these dams were exposed to the open field after weaning, their locomotor activity was increased. They entered the more aversive inner zone of the open-field after a shorter latency, made more entries into and spent more time in the inner zone. Anxiety-related behaviour was not affected upon exposure to the elevated plus maze, suggesting anxiolysis in the open-field only. Increased maternal licking/grooming behaviour could possibly contribute to the anxiolytic phenotype as observed in the offspring from the CD group. In conclusion, we demonstrate that lactational overfeeding impacts on the development of behaviour in the early adolescent rat.
出生后的早期阶段是啮齿动物的一个敏感期，因为行为系统在这段时间内正在发育和成熟。然而，目前对于在哺乳期喂食高能自助餐式饮食（CD）对后代行为的影响知之甚少，而这些后代在青春期早期会接受行为测试。为此，对哺乳期以CD为食的母鼠（Wistar）所生的23日龄后代在旷场或高架十字迷宫中进行探索和焦虑相关行为测试。在出生后第9天，评估母鼠的母性行为和非母性行为。研究假设哺乳期喂食CD会降低后代的焦虑。喂食CD的母鼠由于糖类和脂肪摄入过量，能量摄入量更高。当这些母鼠的后代断奶后暴露于旷场时，它们的运动活动增加。它们在较短的潜伏期后进入旷场中更具厌恶性的内部区域，进入内部区域的次数更多且在其中停留的时间更长。暴露于高架十字迷宫时，焦虑相关行为未受影响，这表明仅在旷场中有抗焦虑作用。增加的母性舔舐/梳理行为可能导致了CD组后代中观察到的抗焦虑表型。总之，我们证明哺乳期过度喂养会影响青春期早期大鼠行为的发育。
