title: Dietary choline during periadolescence attenuates cognitive damage caused by neonatal maternal separation in male rats.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Choline (Ch) is an essential nutrient that acts as a cognitive facilitator when administered during perinatal periods, and it has been recognised as a 'pharmacological' agent that can ease cognitive dysfunctions provoked by exposure to damaging stimuli during early developmental stages. The aim of the present work is to determine whether providing a diet rich in Ch would reduce the severity of the memory deficit provoked by a neonatal stress episode in male adult rats.
  
  
  METHODS
  The effect of Ch on memory was measured using memory tasks such as object and place recognition. Ontogenetic manipulations were conducted during two sensitive developmental periods. During the first post-natal (PN) 14 days, only the male rat pups were selected and half of them were separated from the mother, group maternal separation (MS). Subsequently, during periadolescence (PN 21-60), the rats were exposed to a deficient (DEF = 0 g/kg Ch chloride), sufficient (CON = 1.1 g/kg Ch chloride), or supplemented (SUP = 5 g/kg Ch chloride) diets for this nutrient.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The results indicated that for group MS, only rats fed with the SUP diet were able to recognise the familiar object and place that had been experienced 24 hours before, unlike groups DEF and CON. In addition, whereas rats in the non-separated group (No-MS) recognised the object independently of the diet, only rats that received a DEF diet failed to recognise the place, showing that a Ch deficit affects spatial memory tasks.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  These results show that Ch supplementation during periadolescence can attenuate the memory deficit provoked by extended neonatal stress.
authors.affiliation: a Department of Experimental Psychology and Physiology of behavior , University of Granada , Spain.|b Department of Biological and Biochemical Processes , Simón Bolívar University , Caracas , Venezuela.
authors.forename: Hayarelis
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Moreno Gudiño
authors.affiliation: b Department of Biological and Biochemical Processes , Simón Bolívar University , Caracas , Venezuela.
authors.forename: Diamela
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Carías Picón
authors.affiliation: a Department of Experimental Psychology and Physiology of behavior , University of Granada , Spain.
authors.forename: Isabel
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: de Brugada Sauras
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D000831:Animals, Newborn; D002794:Choline / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D002796:Choline Deficiency / Q000178:diet therapy / Q000503:physiopathology; D003072:Cognition Disorders / Q000209:etiology / Q000517:prevention & control*; D019587:Dietary Supplements; D008297:Male; D008426:Maternal Deprivation; D008568:Memory; D008569:Memory Disorders / Q000209:etiology / Q000517:prevention & control*; D055495:Neurogenesis; D018696:Neuroprotective Agents / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D011897:Random Allocation; D017208:Rats, Wistar; D021641:Recognition, Psychology; D065852:Spatial Memory
chemical_list: D018696:Neuroprotective Agents; D002794:Choline
keywords: Acetylcholine; Choline; Early development; Neonatal stress; Recognition memory