Topic: behavioral alterations

Previous studies from our group showed that brain serotonin deficiency in rodents affects the early postnatal growth of the pups, triggering behavioral alterations and problems in social communication. We aim at understanding the causal link between low levels of brain serotonin and growth retardation and altered behavior in the early postnatal phase of development. To do this we are using a knockout rat model lacking TPH2, the main enzyme involved in the first step of serotonin synthesis in the brain.To tackle growth retardation, we monitored the pituitary activity of the pups at different ag

Maternal diet is a key determinant of later child’s metabolic and mental health outcomes. Human and/or animals consuming a western diet (WD), as compared to a healthy diet (HD), exhibit microbiota dysbiosis, low-grade inflammation, behavioral alterations and defects in the central reward circuit. Accordingly, epidemiological studies show that WD consumption during pregnancy is associated with adverse metabolic and mental health outcomes in offspring. We have developed a mouse model to study the impact of maternal WD on the offspring and challenged hypotheses related to dysbiosis, inflammation