RESUMEN
Objective:To investigate the effect of prenatal taurine supplementation on sensorimotor ability and synaptophysin (Syn) expression in the hippocampus of juvenile rats with intrauterine growth restriction (IUGR).Methods:The IUGR rat model was induced by food restriction throughout pregnancy.Pregnant rats were randomly divided into normal control group, IUGR group and IUGR+ taurine group.Sensorimotor ability was tested in 2-week-old juvenile rats via grading the tail suspension scores and beam balance test scores, followed by detecting Syn expression in the hippocampus of juvenile rats by immunohistochemistry and Western blot.The correlation between sensorimotor ability scores and Syn expression was assessed.Results:Tail suspension time[(14.62±3.46) s vs.(25.38±5.92) s, P<0.001] and beam balance test scores [(9.08±1.38) scores vs.(12.08±1.16) scores, P<0.001] in the IUGR group were significant lower than those of normal control group.Tail suspension time (22.77±5.16) s and beam balance test scores (11.08±1.38) scores in IUGR+ taurine group were significantly higher than those in IUGR group (all P<0.05), but there was no significant difference comparable to those in normal control group ( P>0.05). The average optical density ( A) value [(53.96±2.37)% vs.(61.68±3.07)%, P<0.001] and protein expression of Syn (1.82±0.23 vs.2.23±0.17, P<0.001) in rat hippocampus of IUGR group were all signi-ficantly lower than those in normal control group.The A value [(60.27±2.59)%] and expression of Syn protein (2.07±0.17) in IUGR+ taurine group were significantly higher than those in IUGR group (all P<0.05), but there was no significant difference comparable to those in normal control group ( P>0.05). The expression of Syn in rat hippocampus was positively correlated with the tail suspension test time and beam balance test scores (all P<0.05). Conclusions:Prenatal taurine supplementation can improve the sensorimotor ability of juvenile rats with IUGR by upregulating Syn in the hippocampus.