Endocrine Abstracts

Food restriction (FR) of mothers during the perinatal period, can lead to disorders in emotional behaviors at offspring. GLP-1 may play a role in the regulation of anxiety-like behavior in rodents. The aim of this study was to asses if Liraglutide (a GLP-1 receptor agonist; LIR) given to pregnant rats may prevent the deleterious effects of FR in the anxiety-like behavior in pups at 21 days and two months of age males.

Twenty-five pregnant Sprague-Dawley rats were included. Food restriction (50%) respect to controls started at day 12 (D12) of pregnancy and CT group remain undisturbed. Rats were treated with liraglutide (100 μg/Kg/12h; 50FR/LIRA, CT/LIRA) or vehicle (50FR/VEH, CT/VEH) from gestational day 14 to 21. During lactation the FR was 30%. Anxiety-like behaviors were assessed using the open field test in pups at day 21 and two months of age. Animal performance was recorded in video for posterior analysis.

At D21, there were no differences in the time spent in 10, 20 or 30 cm or in the border between 50FR vs. control, either males or females. However, liraglutide significantly reduced the time spent in 10 cm and in the border, and increased the time in 20 or 30 cm just in 50FR males but not in females. Liraglutide increases 15.66 times the % of time spent at center of open field in 50FR males compared to CT/VEH, 26.6 times compared to CT/LIRA and 11.75 times respect to 50FR/LIRA females. However, at two months of age, no effect of liraglutide in the time spent in the center of 50FR males was observed.

In conclusion besides FR did not induce behavioral alterations at 21 days or two months of age, liraglutide reduced the % of time in the center only in 50FR male pups, indicating an age-dependent effect of liraglutide under non-stressed conditions.