Lee Swanson Research Update

Choline Intake During Pregnancy Shows Benefit

October 2010

A new study shows that maternal intake of the nutrient choline during pregnancy can have a positive impact on the neural functions of children born with Down syndrome.

A study by Cornell University researchers used mice with Down syndrome to see if their mothers’ choline intake during pregnancy had any effect on them. At six months of age, the mice were behaviorally assessed for another six months and researchers found that mice with Down syndrome, born of mothers who received 4.5 times more choline than unsupplemented mothers, had dramatic improvements in attention, cognition and emotion control.

The study states: "In addition to mental retardation, individuals with Down syndrome (DS) also develop the neuropathological changes typical of Alzheimer’s disease (AD) and the majority of these individuals exhibit dementia. The Ts65Dn mouse model of DS exhibits key features of these disorders, including early degeneration of cholinergic basal forebrain (CBF) neurons and impairments in functions dependent on the two CBF projection systems; namely, attention and explicit memory."

"Herein, we demonstrate that supplementing the maternal diet with excess choline during pregnancy and lactation dramatically improved attentional function of the adult trisomic offspring. Specifically, the adult offspring of choline-supplemented Ts65Dn dams performed significantly better than unsupplemented Ts65Dn mice on a series of five visual attention tasks, and in fact, on some tasks did not differ from the normosomic (2N) controls."

Behavioral Neuroscience 124(3):346-361, 2010

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