Maternal diet with sea urchin gangliosides promotes neurodevelopment of young offspring via enhancing NGF and BDNF expression

Neurodevelopment of fetal and infant brains is an essential process not only during infancy but throughout the whole life. Previous studies have verified the neurotrophic effects of GM1 and milk gangliosides (GLSs) on brain development. However, it remains unclear whether the maternal GLS diet during the perinatal period can program the brain development of young offspring. Sea urchin, as a popular sea food, is a good resource of marine-derived GLSs. This study evaluated the effects of maternal diet with sea urchin gangliosides (SU-GLSs) on the utero and neonatal neurodevelopment and compared their efficacy with common GM1 and sialic acid (SA). Herein, SU-GLSs, as well as GM1 and SA, were orally administrated to pregnant mice from pregnancy to lactation. The morphological and functional development of brain were evaluated in postnatal 15-day (P15) mice. SU-GLSs were superior to GM1 and SA in enhancing neuritogensis, spinous dendrites growth and synapse function in hippocampus and cortex of P15 mice. Mechanistic studies found that SU-GLSs upregulated the expression of NGF and BDNF more effectively than GM1 and SA. Furthermore, different glycosylated SU-GLSs promoted neural differentiation of Neuro2a cells in a structure-selective manner. Sulfate-type and disialo-type GLSs are more effective than GM1. These findings suggested that maternal SU-GLS diet could promote the neurodevelopment of young offspring and will be a potential nutrition enriching substance for the early developing brain.