Vinaykumar Nanjundappa, Kumar Ashok, Quadros Lydia S, Prasanna Lokadolalu C
Department of Anatomy, Government Medical College, Palakkad, Kerala, India.
Department of Neurosurgery, RADBOUD UMC, Nijmegen, Netherlands.
J Taibah Univ Med Sci. 2019 Nov 21;14(6):523-530. doi: 10.1016/j.jtumed.2019.09.009. eCollection 2019 Dec.
Animal and human studies have demonstrated that folic acid (FA) is essential for nervous system and brain development. In humans, insufficient maternal FA intake is known to cause neural tube defects, autism spectrum, and other neurodevelopmental disorders in children. The present study aimed to determine the impact of maternal FA supplementation on psychomotor skills and learning and memory functions in their adult offspring.
Eighteen female Wistar rats were randomly divided into three groups. The animals were fed three different concentrations of FA from preconception to pregnancy and during lactation. The adult offspring were assessed for neurobehavioural changes and histological confirmation by hippocampal neuron quantification.
Neurobehavioural assessment revealed a significantly smaller number of alternations, a higher percentage bias, and a greater number of working and reference memory errors. The increased time spent in the dark compartment in the FA-supplementation group indicated deficit(s) in learning memory. Hippocampal neuron quantification revealed a higher mean number of viable neurons in the (CA) region in the control group (CA1 region, 31.2 ± 3.2; CA3 region, 23.2 ± 3.2), with a distinct nucleus in both regions, and least in the FA-supplementation group (CA1 region, 24.2 ± 3.1; CA3 region, 15.2 ± 2.2).
Results of this investigation support the possible negative effect of high levels of maternal FA supplementation during pregnancy and lactation. Such alterations potentially lead to neurobehavioural changes in the adult offspring of Wistar rats.
动物和人体研究表明，叶酸（FA）对神经系统和大脑发育至关重要。在人类中，已知母亲叶酸摄入量不足会导致儿童神经管缺陷、自闭症谱系障碍和其他神经发育障碍。本研究旨在确定孕期补充叶酸对成年子代心理运动技能以及学习和记忆功能的影响。
将18只雌性Wistar大鼠随机分为三组。在受孕前至孕期及哺乳期，给这些动物喂食三种不同浓度的叶酸。通过海马神经元定量评估成年子代的神经行为变化并进行组织学确认。
神经行为评估显示，交替次数显著减少、偏差百分比更高，工作记忆和参考记忆错误数量更多。补充叶酸组在暗室中停留时间增加表明学习记忆存在缺陷。海马神经元定量显示，对照组（CA1区，31.2±3.2；CA3区，23.2±3.2）CA区存活神经元的平均数量更高，两个区域均有明显的细胞核，而补充叶酸组最少（CA1区，24.2±3.1；CA3区，15.2±2.2）。
本研究结果支持孕期和哺乳期母亲大量补充叶酸可能产生负面影响这一观点。此类改变可能导致Wistar大鼠成年子代出现神经行为变化。
