RESUMO

Developmental programming resulting from a suboptimal intrauterine environment can predispose offspring to a wide-range of lifelong health complications. Little is known about the effects maternal protein restriction during pregnancy and/or lactation has on offspring neurodevelopment. We hypothesized that maternal isocaloric low protein diet during pregnancy and/or lactation would negatively influence male offspring affect and risk assessment behaviors as measured by elevated plus maze and open field tests. Control mothers received 20% casein (C) and restricted mothers (R) 10% casein to provide four groups: CC, RR, CR, and RC (first letter pregnancy diet and second letter lactation diet) to evaluate effects of maternal diet on offspring risk assessment, anxiety and exploratory behaviors. Elevated plus maze results showed an effect of pre- and/or postnatal diet manipulation in open arm time (p<0.05) with increases seen in the RR (157±22.7s), CR (137±23.2s) and RC (146.8±10.8s) offspring relative to CC (52±8.6s) offspring. This behavior indicates decreased avoidance (less anxiety) and increased exploration by experimental groups. However, in the open field test the RR (17±4.2 entries) offspring entered the center zone less than the CC (35±6.6 entries) offspring thus exhibiting increased anxiety with no other groups showing effects. Elevated levels of corticosterone were measured before, during and after immobilization in the RR compared to CC offspring. These findings show protein restriction during critical periods of development negatively program offspring behavior. The underlying anatomical structures affected remain to be elucidated.

Assuntos

RESUMO

Suboptimal developmental environments program offspring to lifelong health complications including affective and cognitive disorders. Little is known about the effects of suboptimal intra-uterine environments on associative learning and motivational behavior. We hypothesized that maternal isocaloric low protein diet during pregnancy and lactation would impair offspring associative learning and motivation as measured by operant conditioning and the progressive ratio task, respectively. Control mothers were fed 20% casein (C) and restricted mothers (R) 10% casein to provide four groups: CC, RR, CR, and RC (first letter pregnancy diet and second letter lactation diet), to evaluate effects of maternal diet on male offspring behavior. Impaired learning was observed during fixed ratio-1 operant conditioning in RC offspring that required more sessions to learn vs. the CC offspring (9.4±0.8 and 3.8±0.3 sessions, respectively, p<0.05). Performance in fixed ratio-5 conditioning showed the RR (5.4±1.1), CR (4.0±0.8), and RC (5.0±0.8) offspring required more sessions to reach performance criterion than CC offspring (2.5±0.5, p<0.05). Furthermore, motivational effects during the progressive ratio test revealed less responding in the RR (48.1±17), CR (74.7±8.4), and RC (65.9±11.2) for positive reinforcement vs. the CC offspring (131.5±7.5, p<0.05). These findings demonstrate negative developmental programming effects due to perinatal isocaloric low protein diet on learning and motivation behavior with the nutritional challenge in the prenatal period showing more vulnerability in offspring behavior.

Assuntos

RESUMO

Polynuclear aromatic hydrocarbon (PAH) contaminant concentrations in 870 composite oyster samples from coastal and estuarine areas of the Gulf of Mexico analyzed as part of National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration's (NOAA's) National Status and Trends (NS&T) Mussel Watch Program exhibit a log-normal distribution. There are two major populations in the data. The cumulative frequency function was used to deconvolute the data distribution into two probability density functions and calculate summary statistics for each population. The first population consists of sites with lower PAH concentration probably due to background contamination (i.e. stormwater runoff, atmospheric deposition). The second population are sites with higher concentrations of PAHs associated with local point sources of PAH input (i.e. small oil spills, etc.). The temporal pattern for the mean concentration of the populations from the Gulf of Mexico is consistent with large-scale climatic factors such as the El Niño cycles which affect the precipitation regime.

RESUMO

Thermogenic gas hydrates were recovered from the upper few meters of bottom sediments in the northwestern Gulf of Mexico. The hydrates were associated with oil-stained cores at a water depth of 530 meters. The hydrates apparently occur sporadically in seismic "wipeout" zones of sediments in a region of the Gulf continental slope at least several hundred square kilometers in area.