Journal
NATURE COMMUNICATIONS
Volume 10, Issue -, Pages -Publisher
NATURE PUBLISHING GROUP
DOI: 10.1038/s41467-019-12793-3
Keywords
-
Categories
Funding
- Italian Ministry of University and Research [SIR 2014 RBSI14ZV59]
- Italian Ministry of Health [GR-2011-02352187]
- Catholic University [Linea D.3.2-2015, Linea D.3.2 2017, Linea D.1 2016]
Ask authors/readers for more resources
Metabolic diseases harm brain health and cognitive functions, but whether maternal metabolic unbalance may affect brain plasticity of next generations is still unclear. Here, we demonstrate that maternal high fat diet (HFD)-dependent insulin resistance multigenerationally impairs synaptic plasticity, learning and memory. HFD downregulates BDNF and insulin signaling in maternal tissues and epigenetically inhibits BDNF expression in both germline and hippocampus of progeny. Notably, exposure of the HFD offspring to novel enriched environment restores Bdnf epigenetic activation in the male germline and counteracts the transmission of cognitive impairment to the next generations. BDNF administration to HFD-fed mothers or preserved insulin sensitivity in HFD-fed p66Shc KO mice also prevents the intergenerational transmission of brain damage to the progeny. Collectively, our data suggest that maternal diet multigenerationally impacts on descendants' brain health via gametic mechanisms susceptible to lifestyle.
Authors
I am an author on this paper
Click your name to claim this paper and add it to your profile.
Reviews
Recommended
No Data Available