Cellular and Molecular Neurobiology
Author: Pamela Rocío Fernández | Email: pame.fernandez@live.com
Pamela Fernández1°2°, Rocío Schumacher1°,Luisa Gaydou1°3°, María Florencia Rossetti1°, Ana Paula García1°, Agustina Sabella1°, Jorge Guillermo Ramos1°3°, Cora Stoker1°3°, Guillermina Canesini1°2°
1° 1 Instituto de Salud y Ambiente del Litoral (ISAL), UNL-CONICET, Santa Fe, Argentina.
2° 2 Cátedra de Nutrición en Situaciones Patológicas, FBCB-UNL, Santa Fe, Argentina.
3° 3 Departamento de Bioquímica Clínica y Cuantitativa, FBCB-UNL, Santa Fe, Argentina
In response to the obesity pandemic as a public health issue, a small litter model in rodent and cafeteria diet (CAF) are useful for research. Our aim was to study the effect of neonatal overfeeding (NO) and adult exposure to CAF on the expression of key genes involved in the homeostatic regulation of food intake at brain level. Male Wistar rats were raised in small (4 pups/dam, SL) or normal litters (10 pups/dam, NL). From weaning to postnatal day (PND) 90, they were fed a control diet (CON), then for 11 weeks, animals received CON or CAF (NL-CON, NL-CAF, SL-CON, SL-CAF; 12±2 rats/group). Body weight and food intake were recorded weekly until euthanasia when brains were obtained. Arcuate nucleus (ARC) was isolated by micropunch technique. To analyse the expression of Agouti-related protein (AgRP), Neuropeptide Y (NPY), Cocaine and amphetamine-regulated transcript (CART) and Proopiomelanocortin (POMC), RT-PCR was performed. CAF groups presented increased body weight and food intake (p<0.05). SL groups exhibited the lowest levels of POMC (p=0.02) and NPY (p=0.01). SL-CAF showed significantly lower POMC expression than NL-CAF (p=0.02). No differences were observed in CART or AgRP between groups. These results show that neonatal overfeeding causes alterations of the homeostatic system, apparently inhibiting it from responding to new hedonic stimuli, indicating that early life events lead to long-term alterations in response to a Western diet in adulthood.