Neonatal obesity: implications for memory impairment and neurosteroidogenesis dysregulation

ROSSETTI MF; SCHUMACHER R; CANESINI G; FERNANDEZ PR; ANDREOLI MF; STOKER C; RAMOS JG

Congreso; CONGRESO SAN 2021; 2021

The objective was to explore the importance of neonatal overnutrition on cognition and transcriptional control of steroidogenic enzymes. For that, rats were raised in small litters (3-4 pups/mother; SL), in which pups ingest larger amounts of milk and gain more body weight than rats raised in normal litters (10 pups/mother; NL). On PND21, half the male rats were sacrificed (SL vs NL; 15 pups/group) and the rest of males were maintained under standard environment (SE) until PND90 (SL-SE vs NL-SE; 8rats/group). At PND90, animals were tested in locomotion activity (LA) and episodic-like memory (ELM). After two weeks, they were sacrificed and brain was microdissected. Using micropunch techniques, dentate girus, CA1 and CA3 regions were isolated for mRNA and methylation quantification (results under analysis). At PND21, SL animals had higher body and fat patches weights and greater levels of cholesterol, glucose and triglycerides, than NL rats. However, these metabolic differences were not observed at PND90. No differences were found in LA test although SL-SE rats reported a significantly increased of depositions than NL-SE animals (p