Perinatal and postnatal determinants of brain development: Recent studies and methodological advances

Abstract

Perinatal diet is an important factor in programming brain development and susceptibility to obesity. There are currently several elegant and simple prenatal and postnatal animal models in use to mimic the effects of early life overfeeding and to study its impact on brain and metabolic development. In this chapter we will discuss the background to some of these models, with a specific focus on manipulating rodent litter sizes to alter the early life nutritional environment.