Prenatal Programming of the Mesolimbic Reward Pathway and Food Preferences

The drive to consume palatable foods, high in fat and sugar, goes beyond the need to satisfy hunger and has a strong hedonic component. Studies in rodent models have demonstrated that the preference for these foods can be programmed before birth, and that feeding dams on cafeteria diets during pregnancy and lactation is associated with an increased preference for palatable foods in the offspring after weaning. More recently, attention has turned towards elucidating the biological mechanisms which drive these effects, with studies to date focussing on the impact of maternal cafeteria diets on the development of the mesolimbic reward pathway in the offspring. This chapter discusses the methods we have used to study the impact of maternal “junk food” diets during pregnancy and lactation on food preferences and gene expression of key components of the opioid and dopamine signalling systems in two key regions of the mesolimbic reward pathway in the offspring.
Source: Springer protocols feed by Neuroscience - Category: Neuroscience Source Type: news