Nutritional imbalance during pregnancy can have long-lasting effects on the health status and disease susceptibility of offspring, according to a recent paper published in Stem Cell Reports. Hiroya Yamada's team from Fujita Health University School of Medicine, Toyoake, Japan, found that adult rats exposed to high fructose before birth by feeding their mothers high fructose corn syrup showed impaired performance in learning and memory tests.
The study reported that neurogenesis, which is the generation of new neurons from neural stem cells (NSCs), was reduced in specific regions of the brain involved in learning and cognition among these rats. Yamada's group also discovered changes in NSCs after high fructose exposure, including reduced cell division, impaired generation of new neurons, and altered gene expression.
To investigate why prenatal high fructose exposure has lasting effects on NSCs, researchers profiled epigenetic changes—chemical imprints on DNA that control gene activity. The findings indicated that prenatal high fructose exposure introduced distinct epigenetic changes in fetal NSCs which persisted into adulthood and deregulated genes important for adult neurogenesis. Restoring normal expression of those genes improved the function of NSCs exposed to high fructose.
The research highlights how early-life exposure to an adverse environment such as imbalanced maternal nutrition can have enduring effects on brain development by altering epigenetic regulation of gene activity in NSCs. While epidemiological studies in human populations show similar correlations between maternal diet and offspring health outcomes, further research is needed to determine if human NSCs are affected by high fructose or other environmental stressors similarly.
"Our study suggests that neural stem cells may retain a biological memory of maternal nutrition during pregnancy," said Dr. Yamada. "This may help explain how a transient prenatal dietary imbalance can lead to long-lasting changes in brain development and function."
