Long-term consumption of sugar-sweetened beverage during the growth period promotes social aggression in adult mice with proinflammatory responses in the brain

Abstract

Overconsumption of sugar-sweetened beverages (SSBs) is known to be a key contributor to the obesity epidemic; however, its effects on behavioral changes are yet to be fully studied. In the present study, we examined the long-term effects of SSB on social aggression in mice. Three-week-old weaned mice started to drink either a 30 w/v% sucrose solution (S30), plain water (CT), or an aspartame solution with sweetness equivalent to the sucrose solution (A30) and continued to drink until they were 11-week-old adults. Aggressive behaviors were assessed by the resident-intruder test. We found that SSB significantly promoted social aggression, accompanied by heightened serum corticosterone and reduced body weight. To understand the underlying mechanism, we performed transcriptome analyses of brain. The profiles of mice on S30 were dramatically different from those on CT or A30. Transcriptional networks related to immunological function were significantly dysregulated by SSB. FACS analysis of mice on S30 revealed increased numbers of inflammatory cells in peripheral blood. Interestingly, the artificial sweetener failed to mimic the effects of sugar on social aggression and inflammatory responses. These results demonstrate that SSB promotes aggressive behaviors and provide evidence that sugar reduction strategies may be useful in efforts to prevent social aggression.

Unlimited sucrose consumption during adolescence generates a depressive-like phenotype in adulthood

“…Given that sweet beverage consumption has been associated with social behavior dysfunctions [21], we next examined the social behavior of adult animals exposed or not to sucrose during adolescence and the impact of imipramine. Animals exposed to sucrose during adolescence did not exhibit significant changes in the time spent in social interaction and imipramine did not significantly affect social behavior ( Fig.…”

Skewed Dendritic Cell Differentiation of MyD88-Deficient Donor Bone Marrow Cells, Instead of Massive Expansion as Myeloid-Derived Suppressor Cells, Aggravates GVHD

“…For microarray hybridization, total RNA was isolated and purified using a DNA-free RNA isolation kit (RNAqueous-4PCR kit; Ambion, Austin, TX, USA) according to the manufacturer's instructions. RNA samples were first amplified for array analysis using the Illumina Total Prep RNA Amplification Kit (Ambion) as previously described (29). Amplified cRNA (1.5 µg) was hybridized on Mouse WG-6 v2 Expression BeadChip arrays (Illumina Inc., San Diego, CA, USA), containing more than 45,281 well-annotated Ref transcripts.…”

“…Gene set enrichment analysis (GSEA) was performed to examine the significance of the enrichment of the biological subsets of interest in the whole gene expression profiles (http://www.broadinstitute.org/gsea/index.jsp). Hierarchical clustering analysis was performed with Genesis software v1.7.5 using the Pearson correlation distance matrix with average linkage algorithm (29). Significant pathways were analyzed by the tools in Ingenuity ® Pathway Analysis (QIAGEN, Redwood City, CA, USA).…”

Interplay Between the Gut-Brain Axis, Obesity and Cognitive Function

“…For example, Arcego et al ( 2016 ) demonstrated that rats exposed to 7 days of social isolation showed memory impairment and reduced BDNF, Na+, K+, ATPase activity, MAPK, AKT and phospho-AKT levels in PFCx; however, rats exposed to this stress situation but fed with HFD showed restored memory impairment as well as the aforementioned biochemical alterations. However, Choi et al ( 2017 ) demonstrated that sugar-sweetened beverages consumed by young mice significantly promoted social aggression in the adult life, which represents one of the most detrimental long-term outcomes of neurodevelopmental disorders (Lesch et al, 2012 ). Maged1-deficient mice (MAGE family genes, related with Prader-Willi syndrome (PWS), which includes hyperphagia, repetitive and compulsive behaviors, and cognitive impairment) developed progressive obesity associated with hyperphagia and a complex behavioral syndrome including reduced social interactions, memory impairments, deficient sexual behaviors, as well as increased anxiety, suggesting a connection between metabolic and behavioral outcomes (Dombret et al, 2012 ).…”