Prenatal protein malnutrition affects synaptic potentiation in the dentate gyrus of rats in adulthood.
Long-term potentiation (LTP) was studied in the dentate gyrus of anesthetized normal and prenatally protein malnourished rats in adulthood. LTP was initiated by high-frequency stimulation of the perforant path. Potentiation of both population excitatory postsynaptic potential (EPSP) slope and population spike was studied at various times after conditioning out to 5 h. The results indicate that prenatal protein malnutrition has a differential effect on LTP. Although potentiation of the population spike was relatively unaffected, prenatal protein malnutrition did lead to a significant reduction in potentiation of the population EPSP. Several possibilities are proposed as to the cause of the differential effect.
D000818:Animals; D005071:Evoked Potentials; D005260:Female; D006624:Hippocampus / Q000503:physiopathology*; D009434:Neural Pathways / Q000503:physiopathology; D009473:Neuronal Plasticity; D011247:Pregnancy; D011297:Prenatal Exposure Delayed Effects; D011488:Protein Deficiency / Q000503:physiopathology*; D051381:Rats; D011919:Rats, Inbred Strains; D009435:Synaptic Transmission