Blockade of Opiodergic System During Early Weaning Reverts Feeding Behavior Altered Patterns.

Adverse experiences that occur during the early stages of life can have permanent repercussions in adulthood. Among these experiences, early weaning is one that can alter the molecular, cellular, and behavior patterns in later life. Centered on this fact, the objective of the current study was to evaluate the effect of early weaning at 15 days of life of Wistar rats on their feeding behavior and if the opioidergic system blockade would cause a reversal of these outcomes.

Early life stress induced by maternal separation during lactation alters the eating behavior and serotonin system in middle-aged rat female offspring.

Stressful events occurring during early life have been related to behavioral and neurochemical disturbances. Maternal separation during the first two weeks of life is a traumatic event that strongly affects the feeding behavior and serotonergic system of the progeny in adulthood. As this system modulates the feeding behavior, the present study aimed at investigating the effects of maternal separation-induced stress on both the feeding behavior and serotonergic system of the middle-aged female rats by manipulating this system using fluoxetine, a selective serotonin transporter inhibitor.

Early weaning modulates eating behavior and promotes hypofunction of the serotonergic (5HT) system in juvenile male rats.

Early life stress (ELS) has been associated with developmental impairments. Early weaning (EW) is a postnatal stress model consisting of interruption of lactation and maternal care. The 5HT-system has been associated with neurobehavioral modulations promoted by ELS.

Early weaning leads to disruption of homeostatic and hedonic eating behaviors and modulates serotonin (5HT) and dopamine (DA) systems in male adult rats.

Early weaning is associated with disruption of eating behavior. However, little is known about the mechanisms behind it. 5HT and DA systems are key regulators of homeostatic and hedonic eating behaviors, respectively.

Dual exposure to stress in different stages of development affects eating behavior of male Wistar rats.

Maternal separation stress is a model of early life stress performed by the separation between dam and pups in the first days of life. The consequences of this early stress have been demonstrated on various behaviors, including feeding behavior. The results, however, are still controversial and it seems that a second exposure to stress later in life exacerbates the adverse outcomes.

Early weaning disrupts feeding patterns in female juvenile rats through 5HT-system modulations.

Convergent evidence in literature shows that rapid disruption of maternal care and breastfeeding due to an early weaning protocol changes the development of several neurobehavioral patterns in rodents, including the circadian pattern of feeding. The serotoninergic system has been associated with the control of feeding patterns. Therefore, we aim to evaluate the patterns of feeding, the mRNA expression of 5 H T-1b, 5 H T-2c, and SERT on the hypothalamus, brainstem, and the body weight of female juvenile Wistar rats, submitted to early (PND15) or regular (PND30) weaning.

Pre-weaning maternal separation increases eating later in life in male and female offspring, but increases brainstem dopamine receptor 1a and 2a only in males.

Maternal separation stress (MS) is a model of early life stress performed by the separation between dam and pups in the first days of life. This model has been associated with eating behavior and dopaminergic system abnormal phenotypes. This study aims to investigate whether maternal separation in the light or dark phase of the circadian cycle promotes phenotypic adjustments in the eating behavior and the dopamine system in both males and females.

Undernutrition during pregnancy and lactation increases the number of fos-cells in the reward system in response to a 5-HT6 receptor agonist in male adolescent rats.

Undernutrition promotes morphofunctional adaptations in neuroanatomical circuits, leading to behavioural changes. Adolescence is a period of vulnerability for these adaptations, such as the control of food intake and the serotonergic system. The serotonergic system is capable of promoting satiety.

Effects of perinatal protein malnutrition and fenfluramine action on food intake and neuronal activation in the hypothalamus and raphe nuclei of neonate rats.

In neonatal rats, hunger and satiety responses occur particularly via dehydration and gastric distention, respectively. The control of food intake in newborns is yet to be fully consolidated, particularly with respect to the participation of the hypothalamic nuclei and their relationship with the serotonergic pathway. Moreover, it is unclear how the environmental stressors in early life, like undernutrition, interfere in these events.

Low protein diet during gestation and lactation increases food reward seeking but does not modify sucrose taste reactivity in adult female rats.

Introduction: Nutritional deficiencies during neural development may lead to irreversible changes, even after nutritional rehabilitation, promoting morphological and functional adaptations of structures involved with various behaviours including feeding behaviour. However, the ability of the exposure low protein diet during gestation and lactation to affect the hedonic component of food intake is still poorly understood, especially in females.

Methods: Wistar rats were divided into two groups according to the diet offered to the dams during pregnancy and lactation: control female (CF; diet with 17% protein, n=7) and low protein female (LPF; diet with 8% protein, n=7).

Early exposure of dams to a westernized diet has long-term consequences on food intake and physiometabolic homeostasis of the rat offspring.

This study evaluated the long-term effects of a westernized diet during pregnancy and lactation. Female Wistar rats (n = 12) were divided into two groups according to their food intake, namely, control (C) or westernized (W) diet, throughout pregnancy/lactation. On the 21st day, the male pups were weaned on a standard diet as follows: Control diet (CC) (n = 8) and westernized diet in perinatal life followed by control diet post weaning (WC) (n = 8).