Start prevention before birth
A group of researchers from the Lewis Katz School of Medicine at Temple University (Philadelphia, USA) demonstrated for the first time in mice that fat consumption during pregnancy protects offspring from changes in the brain that are characteristic of the late stages of Alzheimer's disease.
It is known that people whose mothers suffer from Alzheimer's disease have an increased risk of developing the disease at about the same age. The obvious explanation for this phenomenon seems to be genetic factors, but so far no gene has been identified that could prove the inheritance of Alzheimer's disease from mother to child. This fact suggests that environmental factors, such as lifestyle and diet, during pregnancy can significantly affect the risk of developing Alzheimer's disease in offspring later in life.
A diet, in particular, rich in animal fats and cholesterol, is of particular interest as a risk factor. Previously, it was shown that the consumption of large amounts of fat in young and adult mice causes changes in brain functions, which eventually contribute to the development of Alzheimer's disease.
To better understand the relationship between maternal Alzheimer's disease and the risk in her offspring, Dr. Domenico Pratico and his colleagues evaluated the consumption of fatty foods during pregnancy by mice modified to develop an analog of human Alzheimer's disease. Pregnant mice were fed fatty foods throughout pregnancy. After the birth of the offspring, the mothers were transferred to a normal diet, which was maintained during the lactation period. The descendants of these mothers received standard food throughout their lives.
At the age of 11 months, mice born during the experiment underwent behavioral tests to assess memory and learning ability. It was found that animals from mothers who received high-fat food during pregnancy had better learning and memory skills than mice born from mothers who ate standard.
The observed difference in memory and learning ability was associated with maintaining the integrity of synapses. In the descendants of mothers who ate fatty foods, synapses functioned significantly better compared to the descendants of mothers who received standard food. In addition, the offspring of mothers on a high-fat diet had lower levels of beta-amyloid.
In the search for possible mechanisms responsible for the demonstrated effect, the group found that the descendants of mothers who ate high-fat food had a decrease in the activity of three genes involved in the development of Alzheimer's disease: the beta-secretase gene, tau protein and the pathological tau-regulating gene CDK5. Already in the early stages of development, these three genes were turned off in the offspring, because the consumption of fatty foods increased the activity of the FOXP2 protein. Researchers have shown that by suppressing these three genes, it eventually protects offspring from subsequent brain dysfunction and the development of Alzheimer's disease.
Dr. Pratico and his colleagues plan to compare the effects of a high-fat diet and other diets, including diets high in carbohydrates and protein, as well as the Mediterranean diet. They want to test whether the results obtained in this study can be replicated in wild animals.
Article by A. Di Meco et al. Gestational high fat diet protects 3xTg offspring from memory impediments, synaptic dysfunction, and brain pathology published in the journal Molecular Psychiatry.
Aminat Adzhieva, portal "Eternal Youth" http://vechnayamolodost.ru based on EurekAlert: High-fat diet in utero protects against Alzheimer's later, Temple team shows in mice.