Maternal overweight induced by reduced litter size impairs the behavioral neurodevelopment of offspring

• Published in: Life sciences (1973) Vol. 277; p. 119611
• Main Authors: de Novais, Cíntia O., Batista, Tatiane H., Ribeiro, Ana Cláudia A.F., Vitor-Vieira, Fernando, Rojas, Viviana C.T., Ferri, Bárbara G., Vieira, Jádina S., Giusti-Paiva, Alexandre, Vilela, Fabiana C.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Netherlands Elsevier Inc 15-07-2021; Elsevier BV
• Subjects: Autism; Behavior; Body weight; Chemical communication; Discrimination; Exploratory behavior; Females; Hippocampus; Homing behavior; Juveniles; Litter size; Locomotor activity; Males; Maternal behavior; Neurodevelopment; Neurodevelopmental disorders; Object recognition; Offspring; Olfactory discrimination; Olfactory discrimination learning; Overweight; Pattern recognition; Prefrontal cortex; Reduction; Social behavior; Social interactions; Synaptophysin; Vocalization behavior; Western blotting; Neurodevelopmental disorders; Synaptophysin; Overweight
• ISSN: 0024-3205; 1879-0631
• DOI: 10.1016/j.lfs.2021.119611

We assessed the influence of maternal overweight on the behavioral neurodevelopment of male and female offspring in prepubertal age by reducing the litter size.
To reduce litter size in Wistar rats, the offspring of generation 0 (G0) were culled for 12 pups (6 males and 6 females: normal litter, NL-G1) or 4 pups (2 males and 2 females: small litter, SL-G1). In G1 dams, overweight was characterized, maternal behavior and locomotor activity were assessed. At G2, we quantified the ultrasonic vocalizations in post-natal day 5 (PND5); we evaluated olfactory discrimination in the homing behavior test on PND13; and in PND28–32 (prepubertal age), we performed the following tests: social play behavior, hole board, object recognition, and open field. At the end of the experiments, hippocampus and prefrontal cortex were dissected to quantify the synaptophysin by western blotting.
Our data demonstrated that a reduction in litter size was able to induce maternal overweight without altering the parameters related to overweight in the offspring. The SL-G2 offspring showed deficits in early social communication, olfactory discrimination, social play behavior, and the exploration of objects, in addition to increasing repetitive and stereotyped movements. There were also changes in the synaptophysin levels in the hippocampus and prefrontal cortex of the offspring from reduced litter dams. In conclusion, maternal overweight caused by litter reduction impairs behavioral neurodevelopment, inducing autism-like symptoms in the offspring.
This study alerts the public about the negative consequences of maternal overweight in the descendants.