Sagol Department of Neurobiology, Faculty of Natural Sciences, University of Haifa, Haifa, Israel.
Department of Surgery B-HaEmek Medical Center in Afula and Faculty of Medicine, Technion: Israel Institute of Technology, Haifa, Israel.
Cereb Cortex. 2019 May 1;29(5):1900-1909. doi: 10.1093/cercor/bhy070.
Juvenility represents a critical developmental phase during which exposure to a high fat diet (HFD) can severely modify cognitive and emotional functioning. The purpose of this study was to address how short and acute exposure to a HFD during juvenility affects social memory recognition and prefrontal long-term potentiation (LTP). As LTP and social memory depend on the neuromodulator oxytocin (OXY) and due to its role in metabolism, we also examined the effects of OXY in mediating HFD-induced alterations in social memory and LTP. Our results show that short exposure to a HFD during juvenility impairs social preference memory and prefrontal LTP. Interestingly, whereas systemic injections of OXY reversed the impairments in HFD-fed animals and impaired LTP and memory in control animals; prefrontal injections of the OXY agonist TGOT reversed the effects in HFD animals without affecting control animals. Exposure to HFD was associated with a reduction in the levels of OXY in the prefrontal compared to control animals. Interestingly, the restoration of social memory by TGOT in HFD animals was also associated with normalization of OXY in the prefrontal. These results point to a role that prefrontal OXY has in mediating the effects of HFD on memory and plasticity.
幼年期是一个关键的发育阶段，在此期间，高脂肪饮食（HFD）的暴露会严重改变认知和情绪功能。本研究旨在探讨幼年期短期和急性暴露于 HFD 如何影响社会记忆识别和前额叶长时程增强（LTP）。由于 LTP 和社会记忆依赖于神经调质催产素（OXY），并且由于其在代谢中的作用，我们还研究了 OXY 在介导 HFD 诱导的社会记忆和 LTP 改变中的作用。我们的结果表明，幼年期短期暴露于 HFD 会损害社会偏好记忆和前额叶 LTP。有趣的是，尽管全身注射 OXY 逆转了 HFD 喂养动物的损伤，并损害了对照组动物的 LTP 和记忆；但前额叶注射 OXY 激动剂 TGOT 逆转了 HFD 动物的作用，而对对照组动物没有影响。与对照组动物相比，HFD 暴露导致前额叶 OXY 水平降低。有趣的是，TGOT 在 HFD 动物中恢复社会记忆也与前额叶 OXY 的正常化有关。这些结果表明，前额叶 OXY 在介导 HFD 对记忆和可塑性的影响方面具有重要作用。
