Exposure to an obesogenic diet during adolescence leads to abnormal maturation of neural and behavioral substrates underpinning fear and anxiety.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and obesity are highly prevalent in adolescents. Emerging findings from our laboratory and others are consistent with the novel hypothesis that obese individuals may be predisposed to developing PTSD. Given that aberrant fear responses are pivotal in the pathogenesis of PTSD, the objective of this study was to determine the impact of an obesogenic Western-like high-fat diet (WD) on neural substrates associated with fear.

Methods

Adolescent Lewis rats (n = 72) were fed with either the experimental WD (41.4% kcal from fat) or the control diet. The fear-potentiated startle paradigm was used to determine sustained and phasic fear responses. Diffusion tensor imaging metrics and T2 relaxation times were used to determine the structu

SUBMITTER: Vega-Torres JD 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7700822 | biostudies-literature | 2018 May

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature