Hypercaloric diet prevents sexual impairment induced by maternal food restriction.

Prenatal undernutrition impairs copulatory behavior and increases the tendency to become obese/overweight, which also reduces sexual behavior. Re-feeding rats prenatally undernourished with a normocaloric diet can restore their physiological conditions and copulatory behavior. Thus, the present study investigated whether a hypercaloric diet that is administered in rats during the juvenile period prevents sexual impairments that are caused by maternal food restriction and the tendency to become overweight/obese. Female rats were prenatally fed a 40% restricted diet from gestational day 2 to 18. The pups received a hypercaloric diet from postnatal day (PND) 23 to PND65 (food restricted hypercaloric [FRH] group) or laboratory chow (food restricted control [FRC] group). Pups from non-food-restricted dams received laboratory chow during the entire experiment (non-food-restricted [NFR] group). During the juvenile period and adulthood, body weight gain was evaluated weekly. The day of balanopreputial separation, sexual behavior, sexual organ weight, hypodermal adiposity, striatal dopamine and serotonin, serum testosterone, and tumor necrosis factor α (TNF-α) were evaluated. The FRH group exhibited an increase in body weight on PND58 and PND65. The FRC group exhibited an increase in the latency to the first mount and intromission and an increase in serum TNF-α levels but a reduction of dopaminergic activity. The hypercaloric diet reversed all of these effects but increased adiposity. We concluded that the hypercaloric diet administered during the juvenile period attenuated reproductive impairments that were induced by maternal food restriction through increases in the energy expenditure but not the tendency to become overweight/obese.

BDNF receptor blockade hinders the beneficial effects of exercise in a rat model of Parkinson's disease.

Physical exercise is known to produce beneficial effects to the nervous system. In most cases, brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) is involved in such effects. However, little is known on the role of BDNF in exercise-related effects on Parkinson's disease (PD). The aim of this study was to investigate the effects of intermittent treadmill exercise-induced behavioral and histological/neurochemical changes in a rat model of unilateral PD induced by striatal injection of 6-hydroxydopamine (6-OHDA), and the role of BDNF in the exercise effects. Adult male Wistar rats were divided into two main groups: (1) injection of K252a (a blocker of BDNF receptors), and (2) without BDNF receptor blockade. These groups were then subdivided into four groups: control (CLT), sedentary (SED, non-exercised with induction of PD), exercised 3×/week during four weeks before and four weeks after the induction of PD (EXB+EXA), and exercised 3×/week during four weeks after the induction of PD (EXA). One month after 6-OHDA injections, the animals were subjected to rotational behavioral test induced by apomorphine and the brains were collected for immunohistochemistry and immunoblotting assays, in which we measured BDNF and tyrosine hydroxylase (TH) in the substantia nigra pars compacta (SNc) and the striatum (caudate-putamen, CPu). Our results showed a significant reduction of rotational asymmetry induced by apomorphine in the exercised parkinsonian rats. BDNF decreased in the SNc of the SED group, and exercise was able to revert that effect. Exercised groups exhibited reduced damage to the dopaminergic system, detected as a decreased drop of TH levels in SNc and CPu. On the other hand, BDNF blockade was capable of substantially reducing TH expression postlesion, implying enhanced dopaminergic cell loss. Our data revealed that physical exercise is capable of reducing the damage induced by 6-OHDA, and that BDNF receptors are involved in that effect.

Perinatal periodontal disease reduces social behavior in male offspring.

OBJECTIVE: Our objective was to verify whether prenatal maternal periodontitis is a risk factor for the development of central nervous system disorders in rats. METHODS: Periodontitis was induced by placing a ligature around the upper and lower first molars in 9 female Wistar rats (experimental group); 9 rats were left unligated (control group). The maternal general activity in an open field was observed on gestational day (GD) 0, GD 4, and GD 14, and the maternal performance was assessed on the second day after birth. The pups' play behavior was assessed on postnatal day 30. The relative level of reelin was measured in the frontal cortex by real-time PCR analysis. RESULTS: The results showed that, compared with the control group, (1) the general activity in female rats with periodontitis was decreased, (2) the maternal performance of these rats was not modified by periodontitis, (3) the play behavior of pups from dams with periodontitis was decreased, and (4) there were no differences in the frontal cortex reelin levels of pups from dams with periodontitis. CONCLUSIONS: We conclude that pre- and postnatal periodontitis induces maternal sickness behavior and reduces the pups' play behavior without interference with frontal cortex reelin expression.