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“Comfort-foods” chronic intake has different behavioral and neurobiological effects in male rats exposed or not to early-life stress

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  06 June 2019

ACA Cunha ,
R Dalle Molle ,
DP Laureano ,
AR Reis ,
C Corrêa ,
US Matte ,
PP Silveira  and
TD Machado Open the ORCID record for TD Machado [Opens in a new window]
ACA Cunha
Affiliation:
Programa de Pós-Graduação em Saúde da Criança e do Adolescente, Faculdade de Medicina, Hospital de Clínicas de Porto Alegre, Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul, PoA, RS, Brazil
R Dalle Molle
Affiliation:
Programa de Pós-Graduação em Saúde da Criança e do Adolescente, Faculdade de Medicina, Hospital de Clínicas de Porto Alegre, Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul, PoA, RS, Brazil Faculdade Inedi – Cesuca, Cachoeirinha, RS, Brazil
DP Laureano
Affiliation:
Programa de Pós-Graduação em Neurociências, Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul, PoA, RS, Brazil
AR Reis
Affiliation:
Programa de Pós-Graduação em Saúde da Criança e do Adolescente, Faculdade de Medicina, Hospital de Clínicas de Porto Alegre, Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul, PoA, RS, Brazil
C Corrêa
Affiliation:
Programa de Pós-Graduação em Neurociências, Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul, PoA, RS, Brazil
US Matte
Affiliation:
Programa de Pós-Graduação em Saúde da Criança e do Adolescente, Faculdade de Medicina, Hospital de Clínicas de Porto Alegre, Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul, PoA, RS, Brazil Gene Therapy Center, Hospital de Clínicas de Porto Alegre, BrazilPrograma de Pós Graduação em Genética e Biologia Molecular, Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul, PoA, RS, Brazil
PP Silveira
Affiliation:
Programa de Pós-Graduação em Neurociências, Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul, PoA, RS, Brazil Department of Psychiatry, Faculty of Medicine, McGill University; Ludmer Centre for Neuroinformatics and Mental Health, Douglas Mental Health University Institute and Sackler Program for Epigenetics & Psychobiology at McGill University
TD Machado*
Affiliation:
Programa de Pós-Graduação em Saúde da Criança e do Adolescente, Faculdade de Medicina, Hospital de Clínicas de Porto Alegre, Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul, PoA, RS, Brazil
*
Address for correspondence: Tania Diniz Machado, Programa de Pós-Graduação em Saúde da Criança e do Adolescente – FAMED – Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul. Ramiro Barcelos, Largo Eduardo Zaccaro Faraco. Porto Alegre, RS, Brazil. Email: taniadinizmachado@gmail.com
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Abstract

The ability of “comfort-food” (CF) diet to revert long-term effects of early-life stress (ELS) is less well known. The objective of this study was to verify if the chronic exposure to CF diet in animals submitted to ELS could relief the stress response at behavioral, neuroendocrine, and neurobiochemical levels, via differences in glucocorticoid receptors expression in brain areas involved in the stress response. From the second day of life, litters of Wistar rats and their mothers were submitted to the reduced nesting material protocol (ELS). In adult life, ELS and a control group were exposed chronically to two diet schemes: standard rat chow only or both “CF” diet, containing fat (34%) and sugar (20%) and a diet similar to the standard diet. Anxiety-like behavior, neuroendocrine response stress, leptin, GR, SOCS-3, pSTAT3, and the abdominal fat were evaluated. The anxiety-like behavior results showed that ELS group when exposed to comfort food were not different from the others groups. Chronic exposure to CF diet induced an anxiety-like behavior in the control group. Groups chronically exposed to CF diet had lower levels of corticosterone over time independent of the neonatal group. The ELS group exposed to the “CF” diet had higher levels of hippocampal GR, lower levels of hypothalamic SOCS-3 and greater accumulation of abdominal fat. Chronic CF diet consumption is able to reduce corticosterone levels independent of the neonatal history, but is associated with anxiety-like behavior in animals without previous history of trauma. Metabolic disturbances like increased adiposity and altered SOCS-3 seem to be a result of multiple insults (neonatal trauma followed by chronic CF diet). We highlight that the Control-chow and ELS-chow data were previously published, and are included in this study for comparative analysis.

Keywords

Stressanxietyfeeding behavior
Type
Original Article
Information
Journal of Developmental Origins of Health and Disease , Volume 11 , Issue 1 , February 2020 , pp. 18 - 24
Copyright
© Cambridge University Press and the International Society for Developmental Origins of Health and Disease 2019 

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