Researchers at APC Microbiome Ireland at University College Cork report that early-life exposure to a high-fat, high-sugar diet altered feeding behavior and appetite-related brain pathways in mice into adulthood, even after the animals returned to a standard diet and normal body weight. The team also found that a specific Bifidobacterium strain and a prebiotic fiber mix helped mitigate some of these long-term effects.
Scientists at APC Microbiome Ireland, based at University College Cork (UCC), say they found evidence in a mouse model that a high-fat, high-sugar diet early in life can produce lasting changes in how the brain regulates eating.
In research published in Nature Communications, the team reported that mice exposed to the calorie-dense diet during early life showed persistent alterations in adult feeding behavior. The researchers linked those behavioral changes to disruption in the hypothalamus, a brain region central to appetite and energy balance.
The study also tested whether targeting the gut microbiome could reduce these effects. According to the researchers, both a bacterial strain identified as Bifidobacterium longum APC1472 and a combination of prebiotic fibers—fructo-oligosaccharides (FOS) and galacto-oligosaccharides (GOS)—showed potential to mitigate diet-associated changes when provided across the animals’ lifespan.
The UCC-led work involved collaborators from the University of Seville in Spain, the University of Gothenburg in Sweden, and Teagasc Food Research Centre in Fermoy, Ireland, the university said.
