Prenatal Dietary Choline Supplementation Decreases the Threshold for
Induction of Long-Term Potentiation in Young Adult Rats.
Gowri K. Pyapali, Dennis A. Turner, Christina L. Williams, Warren H. Meck and
H. Scott Swartzwelder.
Departments of Surgery (Neurosurgery), Neurobiology, Experimental
Psychology and Psychiatry, Duke University; and Durham VA Medical Center,
Durham, NC 27710.
APStracts 4:371N, 1997.
ABSTRACT
Choline supplementation during gestation in rats leads to augmentation of
spatial memory in adulthood. We hypothesized that prenatal (E12-E17) choline
supplementation in the rat would lead to an enhancement of hippocampal
synaptic plasticity, as assessed by long-term potentiation (LTP) at three to
four months of age. LTP was blindly assessed in area CA1 of hippocampal
slices, using first suprathreshold (above threshold for LTP generation in
control slices) theta-burst stimulus trains. The magnitude of potentiation
after these stimuli was not different between slices from control and
prenatally choline supplemented animals. Next, threshold (reliably leading to
LTP generation in control slices) or subthreshold theta-burst stimulus trains
were applied to slices from control, prenatally choline supplemented, and
prenatally choline deprived rats. Threshold level stimulus trains induced LTP
in slices from both the control and choline supplemented rats, but not in
those from the choline deficient rats. Subthreshold stimulus trains led to LTP
induction in slices from prenatally choline supplemented rats only. These
observations indicate that prenatal dietary manipulation of the amino acid,
choline, leads to subsequent significant alterations of LTP induction
threshold in adult animals.
Received 9 September 1997; accepted in final form 8 December 1997.
APS Manuscript Number J741-7.
Article publication pending J. Neurophysiol.
ISSN 1080-4757 Copyright 1997 The American Physiological Society.
Published in APStracts on 7 January 1998