Maternal excess dietary fat affects the brains of male fetuses

Many women become overweight or obese during pregnancy. Weight gain during pregnancy can present potential health risksFor mothers, there are also indications that it could be very harmful to their children as they could develop psychological disorders such as autism or depression, according to Neuroscience News, citing Nature Metabolism.

In this context, the researcher, Professor Alexis Cecerin, and her colleagues at the Duke University professor of psychology and neuroscience, conducted tests on experimental mice fed a high-fat diet.

The results revealed it High fat diet In the mother, immune cells in the brains of mice stimulate male fetuses, not female fetuses, to consume excessive amounts of serotonin, a brain chemical that affects mood, which subsequently leads to depression-like behavior.

Against this backdrop, Cesrine and fellow researcher Professor Staci Bilbo said something similar could also be happening in humans.

Researchers have suggested that this depression is due to changes during fetal brain development.

Researchers have suggested that one reason may be serotonin, often called the “happiness hormone,” a molecular messenger in the brain whose levels are normally reduced in people with depression.

Cecerin and his research team found that depressed male mice (born to mothers who ate a high-fat diet) had less serotonin in their brains, both when they were still in the womb and as adults.

“There is a lot of evidence that when… Follow a high-fat dietEndotoxins end up in the blood, which basically means there’s a higher prevalence of bacteria in the blood, or endotoxins, which are parts of bacteria.”

The team of researchers measured levels of the bacteria in mice and found that high-fat diets during pregnancy actually increase endotoxin levels in the placenta and fetal brain.

To find out whether the same is true for humans, Cesrine teamed up with Professor Susan Murphy, an associate professor of obstetrics and gynecology at Duke University School of Medicine. And it turned out that this was exactly the case in human fetuses, as more fat was measured in human placental tissue and a decrease in serotonin was detected in the brains of male fetuses, but not in females.