Kandasamey Pratheba, Peleg-Raibstein Daria
Institute for Neuroscience, Institute of Food Nutrition and Health, Department of Health Sciences and Technology, ETH Zurich, Schorenstrasse 16, 8603 Schwerzenbach, Switzerland.
Neuroscience Center Zurich, University of Zurich/ETH Zurich, 8057 Zurich, Switzerland.
Nutrients. 2025 Mar 12;17(6):988. doi: 10.3390/nu17060988.
Maternal overnutrition critically influences offspring's long-term metabolic and cognitive health. While prior research indicates maternal diet can disrupt hippocampal function, the specific impact on spatial memory remains unclear. Female mice were fed a high-fat diet (HFD) for nine weeks before and during pregnancy. Offspring were weaned onto a standard diet and tested at postnatal day 90 using the dry maze, a spatial reference memory task. HFD-exposed offspring exhibited significant learning acquisition impairments, with prolonged latencies in locating hidden rewards and diminished within-session improvements compared to controls. During the probe trial, they spent significantly less time in the target quadrant, indicating long-term spatial memory retention deficits. Notably, these cognitive impairments occurred independently of body weight differences at testing. This study uniquely demonstrates that maternal HFD exposure induces specific spatial memory deficits in adult offspring, potentially through neurodevelopmental alterations preceding metabolic dysfunction. The results highlight the importance of prenatal nutrition in shaping cognitive outcomes later in life. These findings extend our understanding of how prenatal nutrition impacts cognitive aging and disease susceptibility. Given rising obesity rates among women of reproductive age, this research underscores the urgent need for targeted interventions to mitigate the intergenerational effects of maternal overnutrition on brain function.
母体营养过剩对后代的长期代谢和认知健康有着至关重要的影响。虽然先前的研究表明母体饮食会扰乱海马体功能，但对空间记忆的具体影响仍不清楚。在怀孕前和怀孕期间，给雌性小鼠喂食高脂饮食（HFD）九周。后代断奶后采用标准饮食，并在出生后第90天使用干迷宫进行测试，这是一项空间参考记忆任务。与对照组相比，暴露于高脂饮食的后代表现出明显的学习获取障碍，在定位隐藏奖励时潜伏期延长，且在实验过程中的进步较小。在探索试验中，它们在目标象限花费的时间明显减少，表明存在长期空间记忆保持缺陷。值得注意的是，这些认知障碍在测试时与体重差异无关。这项研究独特地表明，母体暴露于高脂饮食会在成年后代中诱发特定的空间记忆缺陷，可能是通过代谢功能障碍之前的神经发育改变。研究结果凸显了产前营养在塑造生命后期认知结果方面的重要性。这些发现扩展了我们对产前营养如何影响认知衰老和疾病易感性的理解。鉴于育龄妇女肥胖率不断上升，这项研究强调了迫切需要采取有针对性的干预措施，以减轻母体营养过剩对脑功能的代际影响。
