Gene expression, cell differentiation and gastric functions: can dietary changes during postnatal development disturb the growth program in rats?

The development of the gastrointestinal tract depends on proper suckling-weaning transition. In the gastric mucosa, hormones and milk-born peptides regulate cell proliferation, differentiation and death. Our hypothesis is that suckling (S) is one of the main regulatory agents during development, and so, changes in dietary pattern or conditions can alter the expression of genes that regulate stem cell niche, cell proliferation and differentiation and consequently the growth, maturation and function. In order to test this idea, we evaluated how early weaning (EW) influences body mass gain, gastric cell proliferation, and the expression of genes that control maturation of mucous surface and neck cells (MNC), and zymogenic (ZC) and parietal cells. Wistar rats were submitted to EW at 15d (Ethical Committee on Animal Use-ICBUSP 18/2015) and gastric samples were collected at 18, 30 and 60d for RT-qPCR, immnublotting and imaging. We found that body mass was lower at 18 and 30d in EW group (p<0.01), whereas at 60d...