SUCROSE CONSUMPTION IN EARLY STAGES OF LIFE AFFECTS FEAR RELATED BEHAVIOR IN ADULTHOOD

KRUSE, M.S.; COIRINI H.

Rio de Janeiro

Congreso; 9th World Congress INTERNATIONAL BRAIN WORLD ORGANIZATION; 2015

IBRO

Sugar consumption has increased dramatically in our society, a phenomenon that is primarily associated withincreased obesity and diabetes in the population. However, whether this overconsumption has an impact on the developing CNS remains unknown. Here we studied the effects of unlimited access to sucrose (sac) in early stages of development on fear conditioning (FC) behavior in adulthood.Methods and Results: 25-50 days old (PD) rats had freeaccess to 10% sucrose in water and water. The control group had access only to water. Rats in groupsac, privileged to take this drink over the water, consuming a larger volume (+33%, p<0.0001). Weight differences were only observed atPD 33-40 (-30% sac vs control, p<0.005). After treatment all animals drank only water for another 25 days and they were tested for FC. The animals were conditioned by 5 cycles of a neutral tone (10s, 1500Hz,85dB) combined with a foot shock (1s, 0.4mA) 20s after the end of the tone. 24 hours later, the tones were presentedwithout shocks (15 trials, 60s intervals). The test was video-recorded and the freezing time per trial/animalwas measured. The group sac presented greater freezing time compared to control (two-way ANOVA; p<.0001). In addition, cFOS expression was increased in the mPFC of sac group compared to control (t-test p<0.05), but not in the ventral hippocampus or the nucleus accumbens. Altogether these results indicate that sugar overconsumption at early stages of life induces long-term alterations in the limbic system. PO1110.