Prenatal Choline Supplementation Protects against Postnatal Neurotoxicity

Abstract

Choline, a dietary compound present in many foods, has recently been classified as an essential nutrient for humans. There is evidence from animal models that the availability of choline during the prenatal period influences neural and cognitive development. Here we report that choline supplementation during a 6 d gestational period protects against neurodegeneration in the posterior cingulate and retrosplenial cortices of female adolescent rats produced by peripheral administration of the NMDA receptor antagonist dizocilpine (MK-801). These data show that availability of a single nutrient, choline, during a brief period of prenatal development diminishes vulnerability to neurotoxicity in adolescent offspring.

Permanent improvement in deficient sensory inhibition in DBA/2 mice with increased perinatal choline

“…This is consistent with human studies in which there is overlap between normal and schizophrenia patient populations (Freedman et al 1999) analogous study, improvement in age-related learning and memory deficits were observed after prenatal choline supplementation in rats (Meck and Williams 2003). Additional studies showed protection from postnatal N-methyl-D-aspartate (NMDA)-induced neurotoxicity (Guo-Ross et al 2002) and increased NMDA-receptor-mediated EPSPs in the hippocampus of adult offspring . Finally, studies have shown protection from some behavioral alterations produced by neonatal alcohol exposure (Thomas et al 2004a), but not from other behavioral changes (Thomas et al 2004b).…”

Maternal Choline Supplementation: A Potential Prenatal Treatment for Down Syndrome and Alzheimer's Disease

“…In addition to the beneficial cognitive effects of MCS in normal rats and mice, this early dietary intervention provides lasting neuroprotective effects and attenuates cognitive impairment in a wide variety of rodent disease models including aging [73, 82, 97–99], prenatal alcohol exposure [100–102], epilepsy [103–105], excitotoxicity [106, 107], Rett syndrome [108–111], and notably, DS [74–76, 112]. …”

Oocyte cryopreservation

“…Choline is a dietary compound that is an essential nutrient for human phospholipid biosynthesis and cell signaling (39). In addition to solution effects, sodium in the culture medium is thought to accumulate intracellularly as a result of impairment of the plasma-membrane Na-K pump during cryopreservation (40 -43).…”