Perinatal food restriction impaired spatial learning and memory behavior and decreased the density of nitric oxide synthase neurons in the hippocampus of adult male rat offspring.

Perinatal undernutrition has adverse effects on brain physiology as well as learning and memory activity. However, the mechanism is still incompletely understood. Nitric oxide (NO) synthesized by neuronal nitric oxide synthase (nNOS) has important roles in neuronal survival and synaptic plasticity as well as contributes to the learning and memory task. The aims of the present study were to investigate whether 50% perinatal food restriction (FR50) produced deleterious effects on the population of nNOS neurons in CA1 and CA3 and the dentate gyrus (DG) region of the hippocampus using ABC immunohistochemical method. The results showed FR50 reduced body weight of offspring on postnatal day (PD)1, PD7, PD10, PD14 and PD21, and this type of food restriction impaired learning and memory of adult male offspring rats (postnatal day 70) and decreased the density of nNOS-positive cells in the CA1, CA3 and DG region of the hippocampus. These findings suggest that perinatal undernutrition affects the activity of nNOS in hippocampus. Thus, these changes in the density of nNOS neurons may partly explain learning and memory disturbances commonly observed in undernourished rats and provide clues to the knowledge of malnutrition effects upon the brain.