The present studies examined the development of ingestive responsiveness to blockade of fatty acid oxidation in rat pups using 2-mercaptoacetate (MA), an inhibitor of mitochondrial acyl-coenzyme A dehydrogenases, or methyl palmoxirate (MP), an inhibitor of carnitine palmitoyltransferase I (CPT-I). Rat pups aged 6, 9, 12, or 15 days of age received an intraperitoneal injection of 0, 100, 200, 40...

OBJECTIVE(S) The effect of maternal voluntary exercise on hippocampal BDNF level in rat offspring was studied. In addition, the possible role of hippocampal BDNF receptors in maternal exercise induced enhancement of learning in the rat pups was investigated. MATERIALS AND METHODS Pregnant rats have been randomly assigned to sedentary control or voluntary exercise groups. Each of the exercisin...

Using techniques developed by Hall (1975) and modified by Diaz (1991), we maintained rat pups in total social isolation from the time they were 2 or 3 days of age until they were 42 days old. We found that rat pups reared in social isolation exhibited susceptibility to social enhancement of food preference indistinguishable from that exhibited by normally reared rat pups. These data suggest tha...

Between 15 and 18 days of age, rat pups develop an alternation strategy in a spatial non-match-to-sample task. Adapting the rat pups to the apparatus by housing them in it overnight, the difference in behavioral patterns can readily be observed in a single laboratory session. The opportunity of the pups to "nipple attach" to an anesthetized dam serves as the reinforcer. Discussion questions are...

Fetal swallowing of amniotic fluid, which contains numerous cytokines and growth factors, plays a key role in gut mucosal development. Preterm birth interrupts this exposure to amniotic fluid-borne growth factors, possibly contributing to the increased risk of necrotizing enterocolitis (NEC) in premature infants. We hypothesized that supplementation of formula feeds with amniotic fluid can prov...

This study aimed to investigate the effects of perinatal protein malnutrition on brain derived-neurotrophic factor (BDNF) concentration in brain tissue and spatial learning and memory performance in young rats. Nine pregnant Wistar rats were assigned into three groups. Rats in one group were fed with a control diet containing 20% protein. Rats in remaining two groups were fed with a diet contai...

Norepinephrine (NE) and serotonin (5-HT) are important modulators of early odor preference learning. NE can act as an unconditioned stimulus (UCS), whereas 5-HT facilitates noradrenergic actions. In this study, we examined the phosphorylation of an important transcription factor, cAMP response element binding protein (CREB), which has been implicated in long-term-memory formation (McLean et al....

The effects of sulfanilic acid, a major azo food dye metabolite, were studied in normal developing rat pups and pups treated with 6-hydroxydopamine (60HDA). Chronic daily intraperitoneal injection of sulfanilic acid during the first postnatal month elicited hyperactivity and impaired shock escape performance in vehicle pups. No differences were noted in 60HDA treated rat pups receiving sulfanil...

During pregnancy, diabetes mellitus exerts detrimental effects on the development of the fetus, especially the central nervous system. In the current study, we evaluated the effects of postnatal treadmill exercise on short-term memory in relation with cell proliferation and apoptosis in the hippocampus of rat pups born to streptozotocin (STZ)-induced diabetic maternal rats. Adult female rats we...

Stress alters brain cell properties and then disturbs cognitive processes, such as learning and memory. In this study, we investigated the effect of postnatal treadmill exercise on hippocampal neurogenesis and spatial learning ability of rat pups following prenatal noise stress. The impact of exercise intensity (mild-intensity exercise vs heavy-intensity exercise) was also compared. The pregnan...