Maternal protein malnutrition affects morphological and neurological development in mouse littermates

CHERTOFF MARIELA; ALBERCA CAROLINA; BERARDINO BRUNO; CÁNEPA EDUARDO TOMÁS

Huerta grande, Córdoba

Congreso; XXIX Annual Meeting of the Argentine Society for Neurosciences; 2014

SOCIEDAD ARGENTINA DE INVESTIGACION EN NEUROCIENCIAS

Maternal undernutrition alters brain maturation of the embryo resulting in cognitive and socio-emotional deficits and producing disturbances in learning and memory. These changes extend the postnatal period and continue throughoutadulthood, mainly regulated through epigenetic modifications, although they are poorly understood. Our aim is to study molecular basis of deficits in mice caused by a low-protein diet (LP) during development and lactation. We focus our study on the consequences of poor protein nutrition on morphological and neurological development and methylation machinery. The experimental design includes 2 groups of CF-1 mice: a normal nourished mums (20% protein) and low-protein malnourished mums (8% of protein) from 5 days before mating to end of lactation. We monitor weight and the morphological and neurological development in both sexes littermates. We evaluate the changes on mRNA expression of glucocorticoid receptor (GR) and methylation machinery members at P21. LP reduced the weight of the littermates without affecting the litter size. We also observed a delay on development parameters such as outer ear detachment, opening of auditory pavilion and sound tactil and visual reflex. Preliminar data showed increased expression of GR and MeCP2 on female LP hippocampus. We also evaluate if  DNA methylation is affected by LP. In summary, maternal undernutrition affects brain development, the stress response and methylation machinery.