Butyrate, but not propionate, reverses maternal diet-induced neurocognitive deficits in offspring

BACKGROUND

Maternal diet plays a beneficial role in the health, including the neurodevelopment, of offspring. Insufficient fibre consumption among the general population has increased concern about neurocognitive diseases. However, the association between maternal low-fibre diet (MLFD) and neurocognitive function in offspring is still unclear.

METHODS

Mice were fed diets containing diverse levels of fibre or administered short-chain fatty acids (SCFAs) during gestation. The neurocognitive functions of the offspring and synaptic plasticity-related protein levels were measured. Gene expression was disrupted by siRNA interference. Samples from pregnant women and paired umbilical cord blood (UCB) samples were analysed by the general linear model.

RESULTS

We found that MLFD impaired cognitive function and synaptic plasticity in offspring and that the impairments were reversed by butyrate intake but not propionate intake. Mechanistic studies showed that histone deacetylase (HDAC)-4 is the most likely mediator of butyrate-dependent neurocognitive improvement. In addition, using human maternal serum and paired UCB samples, we demonstrated that SCFA levels in offspring were positively correlated with levels in the maternal serum.

CONCLUSION

These results provide solid evidence that fibre in the maternal diet regulates neurocognitive functions in offspring through altering SCFA levels and supports the use of SCFA-dependent perinatal intervention for improving offspring health in the clinic.

Novel insights into prebiotic properties on human health: A review

Dietary prebiotics can be metabolized by different colonic microorganisms and release several classes of metabolites, particularly SCFAs into the intestine lumen, influencing the host physiology. Thus, human microbiota has been the focus of one of the most dynamic research fields of our time and their efforts are directed to understand how prebiotics structures and the microbiota-derived metabolites acts on signaling cell pathways and epigenetic control. Therefore, the aim of this review is to provide an overview about the new concept of prebiotics and their mechanistic local and systemically insights related to the host health.