Department of Nutritional Sciences, University of Georgia, Athens, GA, 30602, USA.
Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Georgia, Athens, GA, 30602, USA.
Nutr Res. 2024 Nov;131:147-158. doi: 10.1016/j.nutres.2024.07.004. Epub 2024 Jul 23.
Maternal nutrition during the perinatal stage is critical to offspring brain development. Egg yolks are a balanced and nutrient-dense food that is rich in bioactive components crucial to optimal neurodevelopment early in life. Egg consumption is often recommended to pregnant women to enhance both maternal and fetal health. We hypothesized that maternal intake of egg yolk from late gestation and throughout lactation would enhance functional organization and cognitive developmental outcomes in offspring using a pig model. Sows were fed a control diet (n = 6) or a diet containing egg yolks (n = 5, 350 mg egg yolk powder/kg BW/day, equivalent to ∼3 eggs/day for humans) from late gestation through lactation. At weaning, piglet offspring (n = 2/sow, total n = 22) underwent structural magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and resting-state-functional MRI. Piglets underwent novel object recognition testing to assess hippocampal-dependent learning and memory. Functional MRI results demonstrated that egg yolk significantly increased functional activation in the executive network (p = 0.0343) and cerebellar network (p = 0.0253) in piglets when compared to control. Diffusion tensor imaging analysis showed that perinatal intake of egg yolks significantly increased white matter fiber length in the hippocampus (p = 0.0363) and cerebellum (p = 0.0287) in piglet offspring compared to control piglets. Furthermore, piglets from egg yolk-fed sows spent significantly more proportional frequency exploring the novel object than the familiar object in novel object recognition testing (p = 0.0370). The findings from this study support egg yolk-altered activation of specific brain networks may be associated with functional cognitive outcomes in weaning piglets.
围产期母体营养对后代大脑发育至关重要。蛋黄是一种均衡且营养丰富的食物，富含对生命早期最佳神经发育至关重要的生物活性成分。通常建议孕妇食用鸡蛋，以提高母体和胎儿的健康水平。我们假设，母猪在妊娠晚期和哺乳期摄入蛋黄会增强后代的功能组织和认知发育结果，我们使用猪模型进行了这项研究。母猪在妊娠晚期和哺乳期分别喂食对照饮食（n=6）或含有蛋黄的饮食（n=5，350mg 蛋黄粉/公斤体重/天，相当于人类每天 3 个鸡蛋）。在断奶时，对仔猪后代（n=2/母猪，总计 n=22）进行结构磁共振成像（MRI）和静息态功能磁共振成像。仔猪接受新物体识别测试，以评估海马依赖性学习和记忆。功能磁共振成像结果表明，与对照组相比，蛋黄显著增加了仔猪执行网络（p=0.0343）和小脑网络（p=0.0253）的功能激活。弥散张量成像分析显示，与对照组相比，围产期摄入蛋黄显著增加了仔猪海马（p=0.0363）和小脑（p=0.0287）的白质纤维长度。此外，蛋黄喂养的母猪的仔猪在新物体识别测试中，明显更多地将比例频率用于探索新物体（p=0.0370）。这项研究的结果支持蛋黄改变特定大脑网络的激活可能与断奶仔猪的功能认知结果有关。
