Exploration for the substance to promote brain development of offspring on the basis of analyses on the quality of mother milk of a mouse model with perturbed gut microbiota

2018 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 17K19225
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Challenging Research (Exploratory)
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Research Field: Agricultural chemistry and related fields
• Research Institution: Suzuka University of Medical Science
• Principal Investigator: TOCHITANI SHIRO 鈴鹿医療科学大学, 保健衛生学部, 准教授 (90418591)
• Co-Investigator(Kenkyū-buntansha): 片山 高嶺 京都大学, 生命科学研究科, 教授 (70346104)
• Project Period (FY): 2017-06-30 – 2019-03-31
• Keywords: 神経発達 / 母乳 / 母体腸内細菌撹乱モデル / メタボローム / オリゴ糖 / 介入試験

Outline of Final Research Achievements

We have established a mouse model in which maternal gut microbiota is perturbed by administering a cocktail of antibiotics to pregnant dams (perturbed maternal gut microbiota model: PMGM model). The offspring of this PMGM model exhibit apparent behavioral alterations (Tochitani, 2016). To elucidate the mechanisms underlying these behavioral alterations, we compared the quality of mother milk of PMGM model with that of mother milk of control mice by various methods. The results showed that there is a difference in the concentration of a few oligo saccharides. Based on this finding, we next examined whether oligosaccharide administration rescues the behavioral alterations of the offspring. The results showed that the alterations of the offspring of the mouse model is partially ameliorated. These results suggest that the intervention by oligosaccharide can help to facilitate the brain development of offspring.

Free Research Field

神経科学

Academic Significance and Societal Importance of the Research Achievements

本研究の成果は母体腸内細菌撹乱モデルと対照群との母乳の質の比較を基に仔の脳発達に大きな影響を与える可能性がある物質の探索を行った。その候補物質としてオリゴ糖を得、さらにオリゴ糖の投与により仔の行動に変化が生じることを見出した。これらの結果は母親が周産期に曝露される環境により母乳の質が変化する可能性などを示しており、子の脳発達に影響を与えるような母乳の質を担保するにはどのような母体環境が適切かを解明する研究につながる可能性がある。