Perinatal undernutrition as a potential risk factor for the onset of depression. A behavioral and molecular study in adult rats

GUTIERREZ M.C.; PERONDI M.C.; CUADRA G.R.; VALDOMERO A.

Congreso; XVII Congreso Latinoamericano de Nutrición de la Sociedad Latinoamericana de Nutrición; 2015

SLAN - Sociedad Latinoamericana de Nutrición

Clinical evidence have suggested that early malnutrition promotesthe onset of symptoms related to psychiatric disordersin adulthood. In order to study whether neuronal alterationsinduced by early nutritional insult induces depressive-like behaviors,half of the animals submitted to a protein malnutritionschedule at perinatal age (D-rats) and well-nourished animals(C-rats), were separated from dams daily for 180 min fromPND 1 until PND 10. The other half remained undisturbed.Using validated paradigms commonly employed to assess depressive-and anxiety-like behaviors, different groups of adultrats were subjected to the sucrose preference test, forcedswin test, novel object recognition task, behavioral session forambulatory activity and elevated plus maze. Bearing in mindthat BDNF through its receptor TrkB plays an important rolein stress-mediated changes in neuroplasticity, we evaluatedpTrkB protein levels in the nucleus accumbens, a relevantstructure in the pathophysiology of depression and anhedonia.We observed that perinatal undernutrition significantlydecreased sucrose preference in both, maternal (MS) and nomaternal separated (NMS) groups, compared with C-rats (NMSand MS). Furthermore, immobility time in the forced swim testincreased, and object recognition memory was impaired, withoutaffecting locomotor activity, only in D rats maternally separated.No differences were found in the time spent in the openarms of the elevated plus maze. Finally, and regardless of maternalseparation, nutritional insult also induced a significantdecrease in pTrKB protein levels in the nucleus accumbens,suggesting that TrkB signal pathway plays a key role in theperinatal protein undernutrition induced-anhedonia. Our resultssuggest that early malnutrition could increase the risk ofdeveloping of anhedonia, a core symptom of depression, andfacilitates depressive-like behaviors during adulthood in ratsexposed to neonatal maternal separation.