Nutritional programming of behaviour in the rat
Abstract
Epidemiological studies indicate that the prevalence of obesity and overweight is increasing rapidly in both developed and developing countries. Against this background it is important to determine the effects of obesity upon health and well-being. Defining the impact of obesity upon behaviour lies within the scope of such studies. It is known that variation in the maternal diet during early sensitive periods of development can programme risk of obesity and metabolic dysfunction in offspring. Although the effect of maternal obesity and/ or obesogenic diet throughout pregnancy and lactation on a wide range of physiological systems in rats is well documented, the effect of such manipulations on behaviour is yet to be elucidated in detail. The initial aim of the present thesis was to use a rat model to investigate the relative contribution of maternal obesity induced by a hyperenergetic cafeteria diet (CD) prior to pregnancy and/or maternal exposure to the CD during pregnancy and lactation, on anxiety and exploratory behaviour in adult offspring. Despite all of the maternal feeding periods having some contribution to offspring behaviour, the lactation period appeared to be the most important, with maternal CD having an anxiolytic effect in offspring exposed to the elevated plus maze and open field paradigm. It was hypothesized that maternal exposure to CD during lactation would also impact upon appetite related behaviour and performance on behavioural measures of learning and…
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Evidence Hub reads this as a thesis, done in animal, not in people. Its evidence level is 5 of 5 (Very low · case / narrative / animal / in vitro / in silico). Case reports, narrative reviews, and animal, cell or computer-model studies give the weakest evidence for human health.
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