2023-08-24 17:00:00
Folate, calcium, vitamin D, iron… These vitamins and minerals, found in food, are essential for the proper development of the fetus and the good health of its mother. But according to a study recently published in Nature Cell Biology, the beneficial effect of certain foods taken during pregnancy might also apply to the next generation.
Led by Australian researchers from Monash University, this study focused not on humans, but on nematodes, small worms of less than a millimeter used in laboratories around the world.
For what ? Because the nematode harbors “many functions common to almost all animals, including humans: growth, digestion, aging, muscle movement, nerve signalling, fertilization… And this, with proteins that are sometimes very similar to those of ‘man’, explains the Lyon laboratory Labex Cortex, dedicated to research on the biological foundations of cognition. “The worm serves, for example, as a model in research on maladies d’Alzheimer or Parkinson’s. »
apples and herbs
What have Australian scientists discovered? By studying the process at the origin of the destruction of the “communication cables” necessary for the proper functioning of the brain, nerve fibers called axons, they wondered “if natural products present in food might stabilize these axons and prevent their rupture”, and therefore slow down brain degeneration, explains Professor Roger Pocock, lead author of the study.
And so they found that ursolic acid, a molecule found in apples and certain aromatic herbs (basil, rosemary, thyme, oregano and sage) seemed to help slow the destruction of axons.
How ? “We discovered that ursolic acid causes the activation of a gene that produces a specific type of fat. This particular fat also prevented axon fragility as the animals aged by improving axon transport, and therefore overall health.”
An observation which would therefore concern the fetus during pregnancy, and the next generation: “This is the first time that it has been demonstrated that a lipid is hereditary”, enthuses Professor Pocock. “A mother’s diet can affect not only the brains of her offspring, but also subsequent generations,” he continues. Promising results, at least in the nematode, which remain to be confirmed in humans.
Source : Nature Cell Biology – Labex Cortex – Août 2023
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