Obesity of pregnant mothers affects offspring’s intelligence, eating more dietary fiber can alleviate

"Eat more, it's okay to get fat during pregnancy.

The latest research has found that obesity of pregnant mothers may not only bring diseases such as high blood pressure and diabetes, but also affect the cognitive and social skills of offspring, and the risk of autism will also increase.

Animal experiments show that eating more foods high in dietary fiber during pregnancy can significantly improve the learning and social skills of offspring.

Pregnant mother is obese and suffers the child

With the changes in people's lifestyles and eating habits, overweight and obesity have become global health problems.

In the early 1,000 days of life, maternal and infant nutrition is not only the basis for the brain development of the offspring's fetal period, but also affects the development of their lifelong neuropsychological potential.

So, how does obesity affect the cognitive level of offspring? Are there any mitigation measures?

For the Food Molecular Nutrition and Health Innovation Team of Northwest Sci-Tech University of Agriculture and Forestry, they have been paying close attention to the research work related to the development of the nervous system in the early 1000 days of life, and naturally want to explore the relationship between maternal obesity and the development of brain function in the offspring.

Children's brain power competition

Mice with strong reproductive ability and obvious relative traits have become the first choice for experiments.

Liu Zhigang, one of the corresponding authors of this article and a professor at the School of Food Science and Engineering at Northwest A&F University, told the Chinese Journal of Science that the mice in the state of pregnancy will quickly become "fat-fat and strong" under the continuous feeding of high-fat foods.

When they successfully gave birth to offspring, a PK of brain power and cognitive ability officially began, one side is the offspring group of obese female mice, and the other is the offspring group of normal female mice.

The first level is the "Y Maze".

Next is the second level, "New Object Recognition", to evaluate the long-term memory ability of mice.

The last level is the "three-chamber interactive experiment" to evaluate the contact between mice and their social partners.

After the three levels, the offspring group of obese female mice failed in terms of memory, cognitive abilities, and social abilities.

In the subsequent physiological and biochemical evaluation experiments of brain function, the researchers found that obesity of the maternal generation can cause obvious damage to the synaptic structure of the offspring of mice.

Dietary fiber, reverse "low energy"

Liu Zhigang said that in recent years, the team has made some breakthroughs in dietary patterns affecting nervous system function via the "gut-brain" axis mechanism, laying the foundation for this time to explore how intestinal flora affects the cognitive ability of maternal obese offspring.

"After studying the feces of the two groups of mice, it was found that obesity disrupted the stable state of their own and offspring’s intestinal flora, and significantly reduced the level of specific S24-7 bacteria and the metabolites of short-chain fatty acids, including those of acetic acid and propionic acid.

In order to study its molecular mechanism, the researchers also designed a "swap game" of feces, offspring, and cage positions for mice.

Liu Zhigang introduced that after pouring the feces of obese female mice into mice whose flora had been removed, their offspring also developed cognitive and social deficits.
The mice transplanted with the feces of the obese mother mouse and the children born from the mice eating dietary fiber are exchanged.
After being raised by the other party, the mice that were originally'smart' will become'dumb', but the mice that were originally'dumb' will be smaller.
The mouse has become'smart' a lot.
The offspring of the obese female mouse and the offspring of the female mouse that ate dietary fiber were placed in the same cage, and the above results also appeared.

"These results show that the changes in the intestinal flora-metabolites of the high dietary fiber diet directly improve the maturation of the brain microglia of the offspring and maintain synaptic function, thereby improving the cognition and social interaction of the offspring.
Function.
" he said.

Liu Xuebo, the responsible corresponding author of this article and a professor at the School of Food Science and Engineering of Northwest A&F University, told the China Science Daily, “The weight management and nutrition of pregnant mothers are closely related to the health of the offspring, especially the health of the nervous system development.
Monitoring and control of food are very important.
Our research provides new ideas for nutritional intervention during pregnancy and the research and development of new maternal and child health foods.
In the future, we hope to continue to develop more functional ingredients in food for special populations such as infants and aging.
Nutritional intervention research with unique dietary patterns to help upgrade the health food industry.
” (Source: Liu Runan, Chinese Journal of Science)

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