Supplementation of milk polar lipids to obese dams improves neurodevelopment and cognitive function in male offspring

Abstract

Milk contains about 4% fat globules with its surface covered by polar lipids. Despite the abundant consumption of dairy products, the biological effects of dietary milk polar lipids on metabolic health have only been sparsely examined. Maternal obesity results in neurodevelopmental disorders and cognitive impairment in offspring. Considering the importance of maternal nutrition, the effects of polar lipids-enriched milk fat globule membrane (MFGM-PL) supplementation to dams during pregnancy and lactation on neurodevelopment and its long-term programming effects on offspring cognition were examined. Female Sprague-Dawley rats consumed 8-week control diet (CON) or high-fat diet (HFD) to induce obesity before mating. Then, female rats were fed CON or HFD with or without the supplementation of 400 mg/ kg body weight MFGM-PL during pregnancy and lactation. The offspring were fed 11-week HFD after weaning. MFGM-PL supplementation to obese dams suppressed body weight gain and hyperinsulinemia in both dams and offspring. Offspring born to obese dams displayed delayed neurological reflexes development, impaired neurogenesis before weaning, and cognitive impairment in adulthood, which were recovered by maternal MFGM-PL supplementation. Insulin resistance and aberrant brain-derived neurotrophic factor signaling were induced in the hippocampus of neonatal and adult offspring due to maternal and progeny HFD, but recovered by maternal MFGM-PL administration. This study demonstrates that maternal MFGM-PL supplementation can promote neurodevelopment and exert long-term effects against HFD-induced cognitive impairment in offspring via alleviating hippocampal insulin resistance. Hence, MFGM-PL is a promising ingredient for exerting beneficial programming effects on the brain health of offspring.

Improvement of Spatial Memory and Cognitive Function in Mice via the Intervention of Milk Fat Globule Membrane

“…The body weight of groups C and M increased with increasing experimental time, and there was no significant difference in growth rate and final weight. This result is similar to those of previous studies [ 23 , 24 ], indicating MFGM does not cause the risk of obesity in mice. On the other hand, the high phospholipids (~7.46%) in MFGM have been demonstrated to have a variety of health benefits, including improved cognitive abilities across the lifespan [ 25 ].…”

Milk fat globule membrane supplementation to obese rats during pregnancy and lactation promotes neurodevelopment in offspring via modulating gut microbiota

“…Immunohistochemical examination was performed as previously described ( 23 ). Coronal brain sections were sliced using a freezing microtome (Leica, Germany) and pretreated with 3% hydrogen peroxide to block endogenous peroxidase activity.…”

“…Growth-restricted suckling mice supplemented with MFGM from birth to weaning increased cognitive scores ( 22 ). In our previous study, supplementation of milk polar lipids in obese dams enhanced offspring neurodevelopment via suppressing brain insulin resistance ( 23 ). These studies suggested that MFGM supplementation during the early life was beneficial to neurodevelopment.…”

Chitosan oligosaccharide attenuates hepatic steatosis in HepG2 cells via the activation of AMP‐activated protein kinase

“…Subsequently, quantitative expression assays for genes were determined according to the previous report (Li et al., 2018). Reverse transcription‐quantitative real‐time PCR was conducted by 1 µl cDNA with SYBR master mix (Takara Bio, Tokyo, Japan) using PCR detection system (Yuan et al., 2021). The relative expression levels of target genes were determined on the basis of the expression level of the housekeeping gene GAPDH.…”