Gaining a lot of fat during pregnancy doesn’t affect the brains of sons and daughters the same way

Could being or becoming overweight during pregnancy have potential risks for the health of mothers and children? A new study has discovered how a excess fat it could “tilt the balance” so that they develop disorders such as anxiety or depression, stemming more from one gender than another.

The research, conducted on mice, showed that male animals, not females, born to mothers fed a high-fat diet, have decreased availability of serotonin in the brain -a chemical known as the happiness hormone-, according to the EFE news agency.

The researchers of the Duke University (USA) indicate that this may persist into adulthood and lead to behavioral changes in male mice; Something similar could happen in humans.

The work, which among other things describes the mechanism underlying this relationship, demonstrates that the mother’s nutrition can reorganize the male and female brain in another way-

The authors suggest that their findings may describe a previously unknown mechanism by which maternal diet can negatively affect behavioral traits in offspring of male micealthough more research is needed.

As summarized by the magazine Metabolism of naturewhere the results were published, the study shows that a high-fat maternal diet could lead to increased susceptibility to neurological disorders in offspring by disrupting communication between the placenta and the fetal brain.

People with mood disorders like depression often lose interest in pleasurable activities, recalls a statement from Duke. For mice, one such activity is drink sugar water

The team, led by the researcher alexis cesrinefound that males, but not females, born to mothers with a high-fat diet had no preference for sugar water over tap water.

This made him think that the mother’s nutrition during pregnancy must have changed her children’s brains. children during developmentand I thought of serotonin, a molecular messenger in the brain that is often reduced in people with depression.

Researchers prefer mice males “depressed” by their mothers with a high-fat diet they have less serotonin in the brain, both in utero and as adults.

And they found that the supplement of tryptophana chemical precursor to serotonin, it restored male preference for sugar water and serotonin levels in the brain.

To find out how fat accumulation in the mother lowers serotonin in her offspring, the team studied resident immune cells in the brain: the microglia.

He found that high fat accumulation during pregnancy somehow signals through the male placenta but not the female placenta to microglia and commands you to consume excessive serotonin.

According to research, excess fat triggers immune cells in the brain to “use up” excess serotonin in male offspring, producing a depression-like behavior.

Researchers also found that a high-fat maternal diet causes endotoxin accumulation in fetal tissue.

The group he also analyzed human tissue: As in mice, the more fat was measured in placental tissue, the less serotonin was detected in the male brain.

Researchers are now studying how and why the female offspring suffers a different impact.

fat does not cause “depression” in female micebut makes them less sociable, perhaps due to excessive consumption of the “prosocial hormone” oxytocininstead of serotonin.

For now, this research shows that not all placentas are created equal.