scholarly journals Early maturational emergence of adult-like emotional reactivity and anxiety after brief exposure to an obesogenic diet

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Julio D. Vega-Torres ◽  
Matine Azadian ◽  
Raul Rios-Orsini ◽  
Arsenio L. Reyes-Rivera ◽  
Perla Ontiveros-Angel ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Prefrontal Cortex ◽  
Emotional Reactivity ◽  
Fear Extinction ◽  
Mrna Levels ◽  
Neuronal Activation ◽  
Short Term ◽  
Footshock Stress ◽  
Obesogenic Diet ◽  
Adolescent Rats ◽  
Fear Potentiated Startle

ABSTRACTBackgroundEmerging evidence demonstrates that diet-induced obesity disrupts corticolimbic circuits underlying emotional regulation. Studies directed at understanding how obesity alters brain and behavior are easily confounded by a myriad of complications related to obesity. This study investigated the early neurobiological stress response triggered by an obesogenic diet. Furthermore, this study directly determined the combined impact of a short-term obesogenic diet and adolescence on critical behavioral and molecular substrates implicated in emotion regulation and stress.MethodsAdolescent (postnatal day 31) or adult (postnatal day 81) Lewis rats were fed for one week with an experimental Western-like high-saturated fat diet (WD, 41% kcal from fat) or a matched control diet (CD, 13% kcal from fat). We used the acoustic fear-potentiated startle (FPS) paradigm to determine the effects of the WD on cued fear conditioning and fear extinction. We used c-Fos mapping to determine the functional influence of the diet and stress on corticolimbic circuits.ResultsWe report that one-week WD consumption was sufficient to induce fear extinction deficits in adolescent rats, but not in adult rats. We identify fear-induced alterations in corticolimbic neuronal activation and demonstrate increased prefrontal cortex CRHR1 mRNA levels in the rats that consumed the WD.ConclusionsOur findings demonstrate that short-term consumption of an obesogenic diet during adolescence heightens behavioral and molecular vulnerabilities associated with risk for anxiety and stress-related disorders. Given that fear extinction promotes resilience, and that fear extinction principles are the foundation of psychological treatments for PTSD, understanding how obesogenic environments interact with the adolescent period to affect the acquisition and expression of fear extinction memories is of tremendous clinical relevance.HIGHLIGHTSShort-term WD consumption during adolescence impairs cued fear extinction memory retention in a fear-potentiated startle paradigm.Short-term WD consumption during adolescence attenuates neuronal activation to electric footshock stress in the basomedial nuclei of the amygdala.Short-term WD consumption increases CRHR1 mRNA levels in the medial prefrontal cortex.Adult LEW rats exhibit increased basal HPA axis tone and heightened emotional reactivity to footshock stress relative to adolescent rats.

scholarly journals Developmental regulation of fear memories by an obesogenic high-saturated fat/high-sugar diet

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Julio David Vega-Torres ◽  
Arsenio L. Reyes-Rivera ◽  
Johnny D. Figueroa
Keyword(s):  
Prefrontal Cortex ◽  
Dopamine Receptor ◽  
Saturated Fat ◽  
Fear Extinction ◽  
List Type ◽  
Mrna Levels ◽  
Extinction Learning ◽  
High Sugar ◽  
Obesogenic Diet ◽  
Fear Potentiated Startle

ABSTRACTBackgroundAnxiety and stress-related disorders are strongly linked with obesity and the consumption of obesogenic diets. Paralleling clinical findings, we showed that the consumption of an obesogenic diet during adolescence disrupts the structural integrity of amygdalar and prefrontal cortex circuits underlying emotional responses to stress. These abnormalities were associated with a PTSD-like phenotype, including heightened stress reactivity to predator odor trauma, anxiety-like behaviors, and profound learning deficits. The present follow-up study investigates how an obesogenic diet alters aversion-related associative memories across adolescence.MethodsAdolescent Lewis rats were fed for eight weeks with an experimental Western-like high-saturated fat/high-sugar diet (WD, 41% kcal from fat) or a matched control diet (CD, 13% kcal from fat). Acoustic fear-potentiated startle (FPS) responses were assessed longitudinally at weeks 1, 4, and 8 after commencing the diets to determine the effects of the WD on cued fear conditioning, fear extinction learning, and fear extinction retention.ResultsWe found that the rats that consumed the WD exhibited substantial attenuation of fear extinction and fear extinction retention when remote memory was tested. One-week WD consumption was sufficient to induce impairments in fear extinction learning. This phenotype was associated with reduced dopamine receptor 1 mRNA levels in the prefrontal cortex. Interestingly, our reconditioning paradigm revealed that early-acquired fear memories were resistant to the disruptive effects of chronic WD consumption on cued fear learning.ConclusionsOur findings demonstrate that consumption of an obesogenic WD during adolescence heightens behavioral vulnerabilities associated with risk for anxiety and stress-related disorders. Given that fear extinction promotes resilience and that fear extinction principles are the foundation of psychological treatments for PTSD, understanding how obesity and obesogenic diets affect the acquisition and expression of fear extinction memories is of tremendous clinical relevance.HIGHLIGHTSAcute WD consumption impairs cued fear extinction learning in a fear-potentiated startle paradigm.WD consumption attenuates fear extinction memory retentionWD consumption during adolescence increases acoustic startle responsivity over timeChronic WD consumption decreases dopamine receptor D1 mRNA levels in the prefrontal cortex.

scholarly journals Sex-dependent effects of traumatic stress on social behavior and neuronal activation in the prefrontal cortex and amygdala

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mariia Dorofeikova ◽  
Chandrashekhar D Borkar ◽  
Katherine Weissmuller ◽  
Lydia Smith-Osborne ◽  
Samhita Basavanhalli ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Prefrontal Cortex ◽  
Social Interaction ◽  
Social Behavior ◽  
Acute Stress ◽  
Negative Impact ◽  
Early Gene ◽  
Central Nucleus ◽  
Dependent Manner ◽  
Neuronal Activation ◽  
Footshock Stress

Social behavior is complex and fundamental, and deficits in social behavior are common pathological features for a variety of psychiatric disorders including anxiety, depression, and posttraumatic stress disorder. Acute stress has a negative impact on social behavior, and these effects may vary based on sex. The aim of this study was to explore the effect of footshock stress on the sociability of male and female C57Bl/6J mice. Animals were divided into two main groups of footshock exposure or context exposure control. Each group had mice that were treated with either the benzodiazepine alprazolam, or vehicle. Neuronal activation during social interaction was assessed using immunohistochemistry against the immediate early gene product cFos. Footshock stress induced a significantly increased latency to approach a social interaction counterpart in both sexes. Stress-induced increases in defensive tail-rattling behavior elicited during the sociability test were sex-dependent and alleviated by alprazolam. Alprazolam also lowered social exploration and neuronal activation in the infralimbic medial prefrontal cortex. Social interaction induced sex-dependent differences in cFos activation in the lateral subdivision of the central nucleus of the amygdala and ventromedial intercalated cell clusters. Overall, our results suggest that acute footshock stress induces alterations in sociability and patterns of cFos activation in a sex-dependent manner.

scholarly journals Adjustment of Whey:Casein Ratio from 20:80 to 60:40 in Milk Formulation Affects Food Intake and Brainstem and Hypothalamic Neuronal Activation and Gene Expression in Laboratory Mice

Foods ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 10 (3) ◽  
pp. 658
Author(s):  
Erin L. Wood ◽  
David G. Christian ◽  
Mohammed Arafat ◽  
Laura K. McColl ◽  
Colin G. Prosser ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Food Intake ◽  
Area Postrema ◽  
Energy Levels ◽  
Early Gene ◽  
Hypothalamic Nucleus ◽  
Laboratory Mice ◽  
Neuronal Activation ◽  
Short Term ◽  
Animal Milk ◽  
The Impact

Adjustment of protein content in milk formulations modifies protein and energy levels, ensures amino acid intake and affects satiety. The shift from the natural whey:casein ratio of ~20:80 in animal milk is oftentimes done to reflect the 60:40 ratio of human milk. Studies show that 20:80 versus 60:40 whey:casein milks differently affect glucose metabolism and hormone release; these data parallel animal model findings. It is unknown whether the adjustment from the 20:80 to 60:40 ratio affects appetite and brain processes related to food intake. In this set of studies, we focused on the impact of the 20:80 vs. 60:40 whey:casein content in milk on food intake and feeding-related brain processes in the adult organism. By utilising laboratory mice, we found that the 20:80 whey:casein milk formulation was consumed less avidly and was less preferred than the 60:40 formulation in short-term choice and no-choice feeding paradigms. The relative PCR analyses in the hypothalamus and brain stem revealed that the 20:80 whey:casein milk intake upregulated genes involved in early termination of feeding and in an interplay between reward and satiety, such as melanocortin 3 receptor (MC3R), oxytocin (OXT), proopiomelanocortin (POMC) and glucagon-like peptide-1 receptor (GLP1R). The 20:80 versus 60:40 whey:casein formulation intake differently affected brain neuronal activation (assessed through c-Fos, an immediate-early gene product) in the nucleus of the solitary tract, area postrema, ventromedial hypothalamic nucleus and supraoptic nucleus. We conclude that the shift from the 20:80 to 60:40 whey:casein ratio in milk affects short-term feeding and relevant brain processes.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document