Research Symposium

BIO

I am a junior at Florida State university. I am from Florida and am studying behavioral neuroscience. I am also working in Dr. Linda Rinaman's lab. I currently am assisting in research studying the link between exposure to high fat diet and development of brain mechanisms for modulating motivated behavior. I am passionate about investigating the relationship between diet and exercise and how these things affect brain function. I will continue my education after undergraduate and attend graduate school, with the goal of going into research, hopefully surrounding our daily activities impact our cognition and behavior.

Perinatal Western diet exposure reduces response to GLP1-R agonist in areas of the brain related to food intake

Abstract

pressure and overall decreased quality of life. Recent research demonstrates that these impacts also occur in offspring following maternal consumption of a Western diet. However, the link between maternal diet and physiological changes to offspring is incompletely understood. GLP1 is a neurotransmitter responsible for regulating metabolic and behavioral processes and plays a key role in monitoring food intake. This study investigated whether perinatal WD consumption alters the central GLP1 system in developing rats. To do this, dams were introduced to WD or chow before pregnancy and were maintained on the same diet through gestation and lactation. At postnatal day 14, pups were given an injection of the GLP1R agonist Ex-4 (10ug/kg) to activate GLP1R-dependent signaling and were perfused 2 hours later. The brains were removed, sectioned, and stained for cFos, a marker for neuronal activation. Through this, we visualized neurons activated directly or indirectly by the Ex-4 injection. Using the histology analysis software QuPath, activated neurons were quantified in multiple areas of the brain known to be involved in GLP1 signaling. Offspring exposed to the WD had significantly reduced Ex-4-induced cFos in several nuclei essential in regulating motivated behaviors, including food intake. These results begin to illuminate the connection between perinatal western diet exposure and GLP1R system activation. Evidence that the GLP1GLP1R signaling can be altered by dietary exposure early in life highlights the importance of the early life food environment in shaping health outcomes.

Keywords: GLP1, diet induced obesity, development