The Impact of DNA Methylation/Demethylation Machinery on Hippocampus of Female Weaned Mice and Their Dams in a Protein Malnutrition Model

ALBERCA, CAROLINA D.; CÁNEPA, EDUARDO T.; CHERTOFF, MARIELA

Congreso; XXXIII Congress of the Argentine Society for Research in Neuroscience; 2018

The developing brain requires a specific sequence of molecular steps that must be finely regulated. Adverse environmental, like perinatal protein malnutrition, impacts brain development in mice leading to functional changes. Moreover, the gestation and post-partum period presents the mother with a wide hormonal, physiological, and metabolic changes that could be windows of susceptibility to all kinds of adverse factors. However, little is known about molecular mechanisms related with alterations describe above on malnourished weaned mice and their dams. CF1 dams received low protein diet (8% casein) or normal protein diet 2(0% casein) during gestation and lactation. After this period, dams and PD21 female mice was euthanized, and hippocampus was extracted to study RNA and protein expression. We observed a significant effect of nutritional condition on genes related with epigenetics mechanisms both in dams and weaned mice. We found an increase in DNMT3b and Gadd45b RNA expression in malnourished weaned mice, but there is no difference in DNMT3a and GR. Also, we evidence a greater expression of GR RNA and Gadd45b protein in dams who received low protein diet, but we do not observed difference on DNMT1 RNA and GR protein expression. We suggest that protein malnutrition during gestation and lactation alters the neurological development of female weaned mice and the anxiety and depressive-like behavior of dams through genes related with epigenetic mechanisms.