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A fundamental issue for animal welfare is to keep them clinically healthy, stress-free, and properly fed, especially during rearing, to improve production and quality of derived products. It must be considered that the nutritional and metabolic state of the mother is decisive for foetal growth and that alterations in the diet change the metabolic homeostasis of the organism. Intrauterine growth restriction (IUGR) is characterized by a deficit in growth and weight due to a lack of nutrients for development or oxygen. Due to IUGR, the foetus prioritizes brain development, however, it does not guarantee its normal development or function. In turn, there are metabolic alterations that last into adulthood. This work consists of 3 studies in which the consequences of different nutritional changes are analyzed, whether applied to the pregnant mother or directly to the offspring. A porcine IUGR model was used, paying special attention to the nervous system, where the following were evaluated: the effect of supplementing the maternal diet with the antioxidant hydroxytyrosol at different prenatal and postnatal ages; the effect produced by IUGR in the brain of foetuses of 100 days of gestation whose mothers had been treated with hydroxytyrosol; and the long-term effect of IUGR when a high-fat diet is administered to adult individuals. In the first study, the neurotransmitter profile in various brain areas was analyzed, as well as the morphology of the hippocampus using immunohistochemistry.
The results showed that the effects of maternal supplementation with hydroxytyrosol are restricted to the prenatal period, indicating that the continued presence of hydroxytyrosol is needed to maintain its effects in the brain. The results of the second study indicated that IUGR modified the neurotransmitter profile in foetuses, as well as the development of the hippocampus. Maternal hydroxytyrosol supplementation reversed these changes. Finally, animals affected by IUGR during gestation responded differently to a high-fat diet, increasing the concentration of free amino acids in plasma, but not that of the lipids; increasing the concentration of serotonin in different brain areas; and affecting hippocampal proteins involved in mRNA splicing, vesicular transport, and the mTOR pathway.
