title: Maternal high-fat diet influences outcomes after neonatal hypoxic-ischemic brain injury in rodents.
abstract: The typical US diet has >30% calories from fat; yet, typical laboratory diets contain 17% calories from fat. This disparity could confound the clinical relevance of findings in cerebral ischemia models. We compared outcomes after neonatal brain injury in offspring of rat dams fed standard low-fat chow (17% fat calories) or a higher fat diet (34% fat calories) from day 7 of pregnancy. On postnatal day 7, hypoxic-ischemic injury was induced by right carotid ligation, followed by 60, 75 or 90 min 8% oxygen exposure. Sensorimotor function, brain damage, and serum and brain fatty acid content were compared 1 to 4 weeks later. All lesioned animals developed left forepaw placing deficits; scores were worse in the high-fat groups (p < 0.0001, ANOVA). Similarly, reductions in left forepaw grip strength were more pronounced in the high-fat groups. Severity of right hemisphere damage increased with hypoxia-ischemia duration but did not differ between diet groups. Serum and brain docosahexaenoic acid fatty acid fractions were lower in high-fat progeny (p < 0.05, ANOVA). We speculate that the high-fat diet disrupted docosahexaenoic acid-dependent recovery mechanisms. These findings have significant implications both for refinement of neonatal brain injury models and for understanding the impact of maternal diet on neonatal neuroplasticity.
authors.affiliation: Department of Pediatrics, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI, USA jbarks@med.umich.edu.
authors.forename: John D
authors.initials: JD
authors.lastname: Barks
authors.affiliation: Department of Pediatrics, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI, USA.
authors.forename: Yiqing
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.affiliation: Department of Pediatrics, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI, USA.
authors.forename: Yu
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Shangguan
authors.affiliation: Department of Family Medicine, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI, USA.
authors.forename: Zora
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Djuric
authors.affiliation: Department of Family Medicine, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI, USA.
authors.forename: Jianwei
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Ren
authors.affiliation: Department of Pediatrics, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI, USA.|Department of Neurology, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI, USA.
authors.forename: Faye S
authors.initials: FS
authors.lastname: Silverstein
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D000831:Animals, Newborn; D001930:Brain Injuries / Q000209:etiology*; D059305:Diet, High-Fat; D004195:Disease Models, Animal; D005227:Fatty Acids / Q000032:analysis; D005260:Female; D020925:Hypoxia-Ischemia, Brain / Q000209:etiology*; D009035:Mothers; D009473:Neuronal Plasticity; D051381:Rats; D066191:Sensorimotor Cortex / Q000502:physiology
chemical_list: D005227:Fatty Acids
keywords: Animals; brain; diet; docosahexaenoic acid; functional laterality; high fat; hypoxia-ischemia; neonatal