Nutritionally deprived newborns’ brains are “programmed” to eat more because they have fewer pathways for signalling fullness in the brain region that controls appetite: the discovery is a new clue for the link between low birthweight and obesity later in life, concluded a study published this week in the journal Brain Research.
Researchers from Los Angeles Biomedical Research Institute at Harbor-UCLA Medical Center (LA BioMed) compared the brains of low birthweight newborn rats whose mothers had a 50% food-restricted diet during pregnancy to those of rats born to mothers who had free access to food during pregnancy.
What they found led them to conclude that a tendency to overreat in adulthood could be programmed at stem cell level before birth in people whose mothers had a poor or inadequate diet during pregnancy.
They found less division and differentiation of neural stem cells in the brains of low birthweight newborn rats compared with normal birthweight ones.
Previous studies have already suggested that adult obesity is tied to low birthweight followed by accelerated “catch-up”, as are other chronic conditions such as cardiovascular disease, type 2 diabetes, high blood pressure and osteoporosis.
LA BioMed principal investigator and corresponding author of the study, Dr Mina Desai, told the press that the study shows how important it is that mothers look after their health and follow a healthy diet in pregnancy to reduce the risk of their children turning into obese adults.
“Obesity and its related diseases are the leading cause of death in our society, yet we have few effective strategies for prevention or treatment,” said Desai.
This study offers one such strategy: help mothers follow a nutritious diet in pregnancy.
Nearly two-thirds of American adults are overweight and more than 1 in 5 is obese. Also, about 17% of 2 to 19-year-olds in the US are obese.
This type of stem cell alteration in fetal brains suggests poor maternal diet and health in pregnancy may also be linked to other developmental shortfalls in children, affecting aspects like thinking and behaviour.
“Hypothalamic neurosphere progenitor cells in low birth-weight rat newborns: Neurotrophic effects of leptin and insulin.”
Mina Desai, Tie Li, Michael G. Ross
Brain Research, Volume 1378, 10 March 2011, Pages 29-42
DOI:10.1016/j.brainres.2010.12.080
Additional source: LA BioMed (10 Mar 2011).
Written by: Catharine Paddock, PhD