Altered gene expression in hippocampus and depressive-like behavior in young adult female mice by early protein malnutrition

C. D. ALBERCA; N. PREGI; L. M. BELLUSCIO; E. T. CÁNEPA

GENES BRAIN AND BEHAVIOR

WILEY-BLACKWELL PUBLISHING, INC

Lugar: Londres; Año: 2016 vol. 15 p. 741 - 749

1601-1848

Perinatal development represents a critical period in thelife of an individual. A common cause of poor developmentis that which comes from undernutrition ormalnutrition. In particular, protein deprivation duringdevelopment has been shown to have deep deleteriouseffects on brain?s growth and plasticity. Early-life stresshas also been linked with an increased risk to developdifferent psychopathologies later in life. We have previouslyshown that perinatal protein malnutrition in miceleads to the appearance of anxiety-related behaviors inthe adulthood. We also found evidence that the femaleoffspring was more susceptible to the developmentof depression-related behaviors. In the present work,we further investigated this behavior together with itsmolecular bases.We focused our study on the hippocampus,as it is a structure involved in coping with stressfulsituations. We found an increase in immobility time inthe forced swimming test in perinatally malnourishedfemales, and an alteration in the expression of genesrelated with neuroplasticity, early growth response 1,calcineurin and c-fos. We also found that perinatal malnutritioncauses a reduction in the number of neurons inthe hippocampus. This reduction, together with alteredgene expression, could be related to the increment inimmobility time observed in the forced swimming test.