Pregnant women who consume lots of sweet food and drinks can have a negative long-term impact on their unborn child’s brain, warns new research from Japanese scientists. The study found that moms-to-be who had a high intake of fructose, a simple sugar naturally found in fruits, honey, and vegetables, during pregnancy impaired stem cell function in the fetal brain.

Impact on Brain Development

Nutritional imbalance during pregnancy can have long-lasting effects on the health and disease susceptibility of the offspring. Previous studies have shown that high fructose intake while pregnant raises the risk of gestational diabetes, pre-eclampsia, and placental insufficiency, which can restrict fetal growth. It also alters fetal development, predisposing children to greater risks of obesity, high blood pressure, insulin resistance, and fatty liver disease later in life.

Researchers from Fujita Health University School of Medicine in Toyoake, Japan, found that the performance of adult rats in learning and memory tests was impaired when the rodents had been exposed to high fructose before birth by feeding their mothers with high-fructose corn syrup. Neurogenesis, the generation of new neurons from neural stem cells, was also reduced in distinct regions of the brain involved in learning and cognition in the rats.

Conclusion and Recommendations

The researchers also discovered distinct changes in neural stem cells after high fructose exposure, which included reduced cell division and impaired generation of new neurons, and altered gene expression. The study leader, Hiroya Yamada, says the research illustrates how early-life exposure to an adverse environment, such as an imbalanced maternal nutrition, can have long-lasting effects on brain development and function by changing the epigenetic regulation of gene activity in neural stem cells.

Original reporting: KTBS 3 (Shreveport) — read the source article.