Influence of prenatal iron deficiency and MAOA genotype on response to social challenge in rhesus monkey infants

Abstract

Social and emotional behavior are known to be sensitive to both developmental iron deficiency and monoamine oxidase A (MAOA) gene polymorphisms. In this study, male rhesus monkey infants deprived of dietary iron in utero (ID) were compared to iron sufficient (IS) controls (n=10/group). Half of each group had low MAOA activity genotypes and half had high MAOA activity genotypes. A series of social response tests were conducted at 3 to 14 months of age. MAOA genotype influenced attention to a video of aggressive behavior, emotional expression (fear grimace and sniff) in the social intruder test, social actions (displacement, grooming) in the social dyad test, and aggressive responses to a threatening picture. Interactions between MAOA and prenatal ID were seen in response to the aggressive video, in temperament ratings, in affiliative behavior in the social dyad test, in cortisol response in the social buffering test, and in response to a social intruder and to pictures with social and nonsocial themes. In general the effects of ID were dependent on MAOA genotype in terms of both direction and size of the effect. Nutrition/genotype interactions may shed new light on behavioral consequences of nutritional deprivation during brain development.

Developmental plasticity of red blood cell homeostasis

“…Details of morphometric growth exams were reported separately [23]. Reports on normative CBC values for infant monkeys [29–33] indicate that human thresholds for anemia based on hemoglobin are applicable.…”

“…These iron supplementation regimens were adapted from veterinary recommendations for the dams and from human clinical recommendations for newborns. Infants remained with their dams through four months of age, after which weaning and social grouping were performed as described previously [23]. Beginning at 6 months of age infants participated in an extensive battery of behavioral tests, and noninvasive assessment including PET imaging, until 2 years of age when they were released from the study.…”

“…Beginning at 6 months of age infants participated in an extensive battery of behavioral tests, and noninvasive assessment including PET imaging, until 2 years of age when they were released from the study. Behavioral tests, along with growth measures and CNS assessments, have been reported separately [23]. …”

Fluoxetine: juvenile pharmacokinetics in a nonhuman primate model

“…and dexmedetomidine (0.0075–0.015 mg/kg), and reversed with equal volume of atipamezole at the end of the procedure. A 0.5 mL sample was collected under sterile conditions via passive accumulation from the cisterna magna and frozen at −80° C for shipping to a collaborating laboratory for high pressure liquid chromotography (HPLC) analysis of a panel of monoamines as described previously (Golub et al 2012). Serotonin, the serotonin metabolite 5HIAA, and the dopamine metabolites DOPAC and HVA were quantifiable in all samples, while epinephrine, norepinephrine and dopamine were not detected in any of the samples.…”

Regulation of emotional response in juvenile monkeys treated with fluoxetine: MAOA interactions

“…Rhesus monkeys have uVNTR polymorphisms homologous to those seen in humans and behavioral differences have been reported between high- and low-expression genotypes in interaction with environmental variables in monkeys (Newman et al, 2005; Karere et al, 2009). Using emotionally evocative pictures, we have previously shown interactions between developmental iron deficiency and MAOA polymorphisms in our nonhuman primate model of juvenile behavior (Golub et al, 2012). …”