LABORATORY OF NUTRITION AND NEURODEVELOPMENT

Research line

The importance of maternal nutrition in the offspring neurodevelopment

Maternal nutrition is a critical environmental factor in fetal programming. Epidemiologic and experimental studies in animal models demonstrate that nutrition and the maternal microenvironment are critical in programming the neural circuits that regulate behavior in the offspring. Neurological disorders in offspring associated with maternal nutritional deficits include impaired executive function, learning, abnormal sensory and motor responses, and difficulties in social interaction. One of the most widely accepted hypotheses suggests that the neurological deterioration is due to epigenetic processes that occur during embryo-fetal development. 

The intake of fructose (high fructose corn syrup, HFCS) has increased exponentially worldwide in recent decades, along with the prevalence of metabolic syndrome (MetS), a clinical entity that brings together a set of metabolic alterations that determine a chronic low-grade systemic proinflammatory state that, in the case of a pregnant woman, would facilitate inflammatory molecules circulating in her bloodstream to cross the placenta and reach the fetal brain.

Our group studies the association between fructose-induced maternal MetS and the risk of neurological disorders in the offspring in animal models. Knowledge of the molecular mechanisms involved in these processes will undoubtedly have public health implications and will be fundamental in the design of preventive and therapeutic strategies focused on maternal health during pregnancy and lactation.