Abstract
Maternal nutrition was recognized as a significant part of brain growth and maturation in most mammalian species. Timely intervention with suitable nutraceuticals would provide long-term health benefits. We aim to unravel the molecular mechanisms of perinatal undernutrition-induced impairments in cognition and synaptic plasticity, employing animal model based on dietary nutraceutical supplementation. We treated undernourished dams at their gestational, lactational, and at both the time point with Astaxanthin (AsX) and Docosahexaenoic acid (DHA), and their pups were used as experimental animals. We evaluated the cognitive function by subjecting the pups to behavioral tests in their adult life. In addition, we assessed the expression of genes in the hippocampus related to cognitive function and synaptic plasticity. Our results showed downregulation of Brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF), Neurotrophin-3 (NT-3), cAMP response-element-binding protein (CREB), and uncoupling protein-2 (UCP2) gene expression in pups born to undernourished dams in their adult life, which AsX and DHA modulated. Maternal AsX and DHA supplementation ameliorated the undernutrition-induced learning impairment in novel object recognition (NOR) tests and partially baited radial arm maze (RAM) tasks in offspring's. The expressions of Synapsin-1 and PSD-95 decreased in perinatally undernourished groups compared to control and AsX-DHA treated groups at CA1, CA2, CA3, and DG. AsX and DHA supplementation upregulated BDNF, NT-3, CREB, and UCP2 gene expressions in perinatally undernourished rats, which are involved in intracellular signaling cascades like Ras, PI3K, and PLC. The results of our study give new insights into neuronal differentiation, survival, and plasticity, indicating that the perinatal period is the critical time for reversing maternal undernutrition-induced cognitive impairment in offspring's.
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