A study revealed that the mother’s weight gain during pregnancy increases the health risks for pregnant women and fetuses. Which may lead to some mental disorders such as autism or depression.
The results of the study, published by Neuroscience News, during which researcher Professor Alexis Cecerin and her colleagues from psychology and neurosciences at Duke University conducted tests on experimental mice that follow a high-fat diet, that a high-fat diet in the mother stimulates immune cells in the brains of the mother. Male fetal mice, not females, overconsumed serotonin, a brain chemical that affects mood; Which subsequently leads to depression-like behavior.
Something similar may be happening in humans as well, Cecerin and fellow researcher Professor Staci Bilbo said, suggesting that depression stems from changes that occurred during fetal brain development.
The researchers thought that one of the reasons that might explain this is serotonin, which is often called the “happy hormone”; It is a molecular messenger in the brain whose levels are normally reduced in people with depression.
Cecerin and her research team discovered that depressed male mice, which were born to mothers who ate a high-fat diet; She has less serotonin in her brain, both when she was still in the womb and as an adult.
