Brain serotonin and serotonin transporter expression in male and female postnatal rat offspring in response to perturbed early life dietary exposures.

Serotonin (5-HT) is critical for neurodevelopment and the serotonin transporter (SERT) modulates serotonin levels. Perturbed prenatal and postnatal dietary exposures affect the developing offspring predisposing to neurobehavioral disorders in the adult. We hypothesized that the postnatal brain 5-HT-SERT imbalance associated with gut dysbiosis forms the contributing gut-brain axis dependent mechanism responsible for such ultimate phenotypes. Employing maternal diet restricted (IUGR, n=8) and high fat+high fructose (HFhf, n=6) dietary modifications, rodent brain serotonin was assessed temporally by ELISA and SERT by quantitative Western blot analysis. Simultaneously, colonic microbiome studies were performed. At early postnatal (P) day 2 no changes in the IUGR, but a ~24% reduction in serotonin ( We conclude that an imbalanced 5-HT-SERT axis during postnatal brain development is sex-specific and induced by maternal dietary modifications related to postnatal gut dysbiosis. We speculate that these early changes albeit transient may permanently alter critical neural maturational processes affecting circuitry formation, thereby perturbing the neuropsychiatric equipoise.

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Copyright © 2024 Ye, Ghosh, Shin, Ganguly, Maggiotto, Jacobs and Devaskar.

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The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.