Maternal physical activity-induced adaptive transcriptional response in brain and placenta of mothers and rat offspring

Fragoso, Jéssica; Santos, Gabriela Carvalho Jurema; Silva, Helyson Thomaz da; Nogueira, Viviane Oliveira; Loizon, Emmanuelle; Vidal, Hubert; Costa‐Silva, João Henrique; Aragão, Raquel da Silva; Pirola, Luciano; Leandro, Carol Góis

doi:10.1017/s2040174419000333

Cited by 9 publications

(1 citation statement)

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“…Potential biological mechanisms such as placental transfer has been suggested ( Robinson and Bucci, 2012 ). An animal study on rats investigated the effects of maternal physical activity on gene expression of the neurotrophic factors, and upregulation was found in placenta of the very active mothers ( Fragoso et al, 2020 ). Additionally, other studies found voluntary exercise during pregnancy significantly increased the level of neurotrophic factors protein in hippocampus of rat pups; and female offspring born to pregnant mice with voluntary running wheels showed enhanced cell proliferation in the dorsal hippocampus ( Akhavan et al, 2013 ; Yau et al, 2019 ).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Mother’s physical activity during pregnancy and newborn’s brain cortical development

Raja²,

Phelan³

et al. 2022

Front. Hum. Neurosci.

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BackgroundPhysical activity is known to improve mental health, and is regarded as safe and desirable for uncomplicated pregnancy. In this novel study, we aim to evaluate whether there are associations between maternal physical activity during pregnancy and neonatal brain cortical development.MethodsForty-four mother/newborn dyads were included in this longitudinal study. Healthy pregnant women were recruited and their physical activity throughout pregnancy were documented using accelerometers worn for 3–7 days for each of the 6 time points at 4–10, ∼12, ∼18, ∼24, ∼30, and ∼36 weeks of pregnancy. Average daily total steps and daily total activity count as well as daily minutes spent in sedentary/light/moderate/vigorous activity modes were extracted from the accelerometers for each time point. At ∼2 weeks of postnatal age, their newborns underwent an MRI examination of the brain without sedation, and 3D T1-weighted brain structural images were post-processed by the iBEAT2.0 software utilizing advanced deep learning approaches. Cortical surface maps were reconstructed from the segmented brain images and parcellated to 34 regions in each brain hemisphere, and mean cortical thickness for each region was computed for partial correlation analyses with physical activity measures, with appropriate multiple comparison corrections and potential confounders controlled.ResultsAt 4–10 weeks of pregnancy, mother’s daily total activity count positively correlated (FDR corrected P ≤ 0.05) with newborn’s cortical thickness in the left caudal middle frontal gyrus (rho = 0.48, P = 0.04), right medial orbital frontal gyrus (rho = 0.48, P = 0.04), and right transverse temporal gyrus (rho = 0.48, P = 0.04); mother’s daily time in moderate activity mode positively correlated with newborn’s cortical thickness in the right transverse temporal gyrus (rho = 0.53, P = 0.03). At ∼24 weeks of pregnancy, mother’s daily total activity count positively correlated (FDR corrected P ≤ 0.05) with newborn’s cortical thickness in the left (rho = 0.56, P = 0.02) and right isthmus cingulate gyrus (rho = 0.50, P = 0.05).ConclusionWe identified significant relationships between physical activity in healthy pregnant women during the 1st and 2nd trimester and brain cortical development in newborns. Higher maternal physical activity level is associated with greater neonatal brain cortical thickness, presumably indicating better cortical development.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%