Perinatal protein malnutrition impairs declarative long-term memory

LAURA BELLUSCIO; BRUNO G. BERARDINO; NADINA M. FERRONI; EDUARDO T. CÁNEPA

Huerta Grande - Córdoba

Conferencia; XXVIII Congreso Anual de la Sociedad Argentina de Investigación en Neurociencias; 2013

Sociedad Argentina de Investigación en Neurociencias

Protein malnutrition is a worldwide condition that affects the development of infants. Unlike undernutrition, malnutrition is also present in developed countries and is known to cause learning disabilities in malnourished children. With the aim of further understanding the link between nourishment and cognition we established a model of protein malnutrition during development. CF-1 dams were fed either with normal protein (20% casein) or low protein (9% casein) diet during pregnancy and lactation. Malnourished mothers spent less time licking and grooming the pups, a sign of low maternal care. Mothers of the low protein group also exhibited traits of anxious behaviour when subjected to the elevated plus maze test. In order to further understand how maternal malnutrition affects emotional capabilities of the progeny, we performed the tail suspension and the cage escape tests in male and female mice. The first test revealed the presence of depression-like behaviour in the low protein group while the second suggested that they also where less motivated to explore the environment. Finally, offspring?s cognitive abilities were tested in the Y-maze (spontaneous alternation and cued novel arm exploration) and with the novel object recognition test, where male mice from the low protein group had a lower performance in terms of short and long term memory. The results obtained so far indicate that maternal malnutrition affects both cognitive and emotional abilities of the offspring.