Cellular and Molecular Neurobiology
Author: ERIKA INÉS GEORGIEFF | Email: georgiefferikaines@gmail.com
ERIKA INES GEORGIEFF1°2°, MICAELA SALVOCHEA1°2°,EDUARDO CÁNEPA1°2°, MARIELA CHERTOFF1°2°
1° Laboratorio de Neuroepigenética y Adversidades Tempranas, Departamento de Química Biológica Facultad de Ciencias Exactas y Naturales, Universidad de Buenos Aires. Buenos Aires, Argentina.
2° Instituto de Química Biológica de la Facultad de Ciencias Exactas y Naturales (IQUIBICEN), CONICET- Universidad de Buenos Aires. Buenos Aires, Argentina.
Maternal protein malnutrition has lasting effects that negatively impact brain development and behavior in offspring, increasing the risk of anxiety and depression disorders. This deficient nutritional state alters stress response leading to behavioral alterations. However, it has been shown that an environment enriched with social and sensory stimulation can mitigate the adverse behavioral effects induced by perinatal protein malnutrition. In this study, we investigated plasma corticosterone levels and behavioral modulation in mouse offspring subjected to normal-protein (NP) or low-protein (LP) diets during gestation and lactation. After weaning, offspring from NP and LP groups were assigned to either a standard (EN) or enriched (EE) environment with social and sensory stimuli for five weeks. This allowed us to evaluate the impact of environmental enrichment on reversing behavioral and molecular deficits associated with early protein malnutrition. An increase in plasma corticosterone levels was observed in male and female LP offspring at P21 and only in female offspring to P56 from the LP-EE group compared to the LP-EN group. The results of behavioral Dark-Light Box (DLB) Test and the Dominance Test, revealed significant differences between the groups, in both males and females. These results suggest that the enriched environment influences behavior and the molecular mechanisms affected by protein malnutrition during early development.