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A maternal “junk‐food” diet reduces sensitivity to the opioid antagonist naloxone in offspring postweaning
Author(s) -
Gugusheff Jessica R.,
Ong Zhi Yi,
Muhlhausler Beverly S.
Publication year - 2013
Publication title -
the faseb journal
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.709
H-Index - 277
eISSN - 1530-6860
pISSN - 0892-6638
DOI - 10.1096/fj.12-217653
Subject(s) - offspring , endocrinology , medicine , (+) naloxone , conditioned place preference , opioid receptor , opioid , μ opioid receptor , weaning , ventral tegmental area , opioid antagonist , antagonist , biology , receptor , pregnancy , dopamine , genetics , dopaminergic
Perinatal exposure to a maternal “junk‐food” diet has been demonstrated to increase the preference for palatable diets in adult offspring. We aimed to determine whether this increased preference could be attributed to changes in μ‐opioid receptor expression within the mesolimbic reward pathway. We report here that mRNA expression of the μ‐opioid receptor in the ventral tegmental area (VTA) at weaning was 1.4‐fold (males) and 1.9‐fold (females) lower in offspring of junk‐food (JF)‐fed rat dams than in offspring of dams fed a standard rodent diet (control) ( P <0.05). Administration of the opioid antagonist naloxone to offspring given a palatable diet postweaning significantly reduced fat intake in control offspring (males: 7.7±0.7 vs. 5.4±0.6 g/kg/d; females: 6.9±0.3 vs. 3.9±0.5g/kg/d; P <0.05), but not in male JF offspring (8.6±0.6 vs. 7.1±0.5g/kg/d) and was less effective at reducing fat intake in JF females (42.2±6.0 vs. 23.1 ±4.1% reduction, P <0.05). Similar findings were observed for total energy intake. Naloxone treatment did not affect intake of standard rodent feed in control or JF offspring. These findings suggest that exposure to a maternal junk‐food diet results in early desensitization of the opioid system which may explain the increased preference for junk food in these offspring.—Gugusheff, J. R., Ong, Z. Y., Muhlhausler, B. S. A maternal “junk‐food” diet reduces sensitivity to the opioid antagonist naloxone in offspring postweaning. FASEB J. 27, 1275–1284 (2013). www.fasebj.org