Adverse prenatal environment, such as intrauterine growth retardation (IUGR), increases the risk for negative neurobehavioral outcomes. IUGR, affecting approximately 10% of all US infants, is a known risk factor for ADHD, schizophrenia spectrum disorders and addiction. Mouse dams were fed a protein deficient (8.5% protein) or isocaloric control (18% protein) diet through pregnancy and lactation (a well validated rodent model of IUGR). Dopamine-related gene expression, dopamine content and behavior were examined in adult offspring. IUGR offspring have 6-8 fold overexpression of dopamine (DA)-related genes (tyrosine hydroxylase (TH) and dopamine transporter) in brain regions related to reward processing (ventral tegmental area (VTA), nucleus accumbens, Publisher's Disclaimer: This is a PDF file of an unedited manuscript that has been accepted for publication. As a service to our customers we are providing this early version of the manuscript. The manuscript will undergo copyediting, typesetting, and review of the resulting proof before it is published in its final citable form. Please note that during the production process errors may be discovered which could affect the content, and all legal disclaimers that apply to the journal pertain.
DISCLOSURE/CONFLICTS OF INTERESTZ Vucetic, K Totoki, H. Schoch, KW Whitaker, T. E. Hill-Smith, and TM Reyes declare no conflicts of interest, either financial or otherwise. Irwin Lucki has been on the Scientific Advisory Board for Wyeth and has received research support from AstraZeneca, Wyeth, Forest and Epix pharmaceutical companies during the past 3 years.
NIH Public Access
Author ManuscriptNeuroscience. Author manuscript; available in PMC 2011 June 30.
NIH-PA Author ManuscriptNIH-PA Author Manuscript NIH-PA Author Manuscript prefrontal cortex (PFC)) and homeostatic control (hypothalamus), as well as increased number of TH-ir neurons in the VTA and increased dopamine in the PFC. Cyclin-dependent kinase inhibitor 1C (Cdkn1c) is critical for dopaminergic neuron development. Methylation of the promoter region of Cdkn1c was decreased by half and there was a resultant 2-7 fold increase in Cdkn1c mRNA expression across brain regions. IUGR animals demonstrated alterations in dopamine-dependent behaviors, including altered reward-processing, hyperactivity and exaggerated locomotor response to cocaine.These data describe significant dopamine-related molecular and behavioral abnormalities in a mouse model of IUGR. This animal model, with both face validity (behavior) and construct validity (link to IUGR and dopamine dysfunction) may prove useful in identifying underlying mechanisms linking IUGR and adverse neurobehavioral outcomes such as ADHD.
Keywordsdopamine; neurodevelopmental programming; epigenetics; addiction; perinatal nutrition A suboptimal prenatal environment, typically indicated by low birth weight or being small for gestational age (SGA), can increase the risk for adverse neurobehavioral outcomes, including ADHD (Hultman et al., 2007;Lahti et al., 2006), schizophr...