Palatable cafeteria diet ameliorates anxiety and depression-like symptoms following an adverse early environment

The arcuate NPY, POMC, and CART expressions responding to food deprivation are exaggerated in young female rats that experienced neonatal maternal separation

“…Previous studies using a similar MS protocol; i.e. 3 h daily separation during the first two weeks of birth, have reported that the hypothalamic NPY mRNA and the plasma corticosterone levels are not affected by MS experience in female rats (Slotten et al, 2006;Desbonnet et al, 2008;Maniam and Morris, 2010). The plasma level of leptin, an adipose hormone, normally correlates with body mass.…”

“…3 h of daily MS during the first two weeks of birth, have reported that weight gain of MS females does not differ from NH females until 2 months of age, except a transient increase shortly after the separation period (Kalinichev et al, 2002;Slotten et al, 2006;Maniam and Morris, 2010). It appears that neonatal maternal separation acutely, but not permanently, affects body weight gain of the offspring as long as the littermates are housed in group with ad libitum access to food (Mclntosh et al, 1999;Iwasaki et al, 2000;Kalinichev et al, 2002;Kim et al, 2005;Slotten et al, 2006;Maniam and Morris, 2010).…”

Stress-Induced Eating Dampens Physiological and Behavioral Stress Responses

“…In rats, the ingestion of palatable food reduces the effects of chronic maternal separation stress, decreasing anxiety and depressive-like behaviors [38]. Likewise, in mice exposed to chronic unpredictable social defeat and overcrowding stress, concurrent subjection to a high-fat diet decreased the expression of anxiety and depressivelike behaviors, compared to mice on a concurrent low-fat diet.…”

Methyl donor supplementation in rats reverses the deleterious effect of maternal separation on depression-like behaviour

“…Moreover, postnatal environment is known to play a relevant role in neurodevelopment and behavioural responses in adulthood [2]. Thus, maternal separation (MS) is a well-known animal paradigm, which is emotionally stressful for the rodent pups [3], resulting in animals with behavioural and neuroendocrine signs of elevated stress reactivity in adulthood.…”

“…Previous studies have reported nutrition as a factor that can modify the stress response [2,23]. Thus, Dallman et al [24] characterized palatable food as a self-medication against stress signs.…”