Trial on piglets suggests that mother’s diet during pregnancy can influence whole brain development
By Kate Ayers
Staff Writer
Farms.com
A new study completed with pigs provides more detailed insights into the effects of a mother’s diet on prenatal and neonatal brain development.
“The pig is used because it is truly a ‘dual purpose’ animal model, so we’re able to improve our understanding of nutritional effects for both animal agriculture and human health,” Ryan N. Dilger, an associate professor for the department of animal sciences at the University of Illinois, said to Farms.com today.
“This (research) is possible because pigs and humans have similar nutrient requirements, similar metabolic profiles, and also strikingly similar brain development patterns.”
Given the similarities between pigs and humans, the researchers decided to extend previous work conducted with rodents looking at infant brain development. Specifically, this research linked an essential nutrient to infant metabolism and brain development, a university release said yesterday.
The essential nutrient, choline, is found in liver, eggs and wheat germ. Choline plays a role in the formation of cell membranes, neurotransmitters and the fatty sheath surrounding nerve cells, according to the release.
However, most people – including pregnant women – don’t consume enough of it.
Mudd and his research team investigated the affect that choline-deficient diets had on piglet brain development during and after pregnancy. Scientists gave one group of pregnant sows a choline-deficient diet while they gave another group a choline-sufficient diet, the release said. Researchers applied both treatments through the second half of the pregnancies.
After weaning, researchers gave piglets a choline-deficient or choline-sufficient milk replacer for a month. Following those 30 days, the team scanned the piglets by magnetic resonance imaging.
Building on earlier research, Mudd analyzed variances in levels of grey and white matter.
Grey matter mostly consists of neurons, and white matter connects neurons and different areas of the brain, according to the release.
“In pigs from choline-deficient moms, their brains were about 10 percent smaller overall,” Mudd said in the release. Also, 11 of the 19 regions of the brain were substantially smaller in choline-deficient piglets.
Piglets that were choline-sufficient had greater volumes of both grey and white matter.
“Choline, like iron, does not appear to be specific to one part of brain development, it’s important for all of it,” Mudd said.
Postnatal choline supplements did not correct for the prenatal deficiency, researchers found.
“Our data suggest that dams not receiving enough dietary choline during gestation lead to structural changes in brain development of the offspring,” Dilger said to Farms.com.
“Because up to 90 per cent of adults may not be ingesting adequate amounts of choline, the implications of our research suggest that this may cause subtle changes in the structural brain development of children.”
Stephanie Henry photo