Taking choline during pregnancy and breastfeeding may have long-term benefits for offspring diagnosed with Down’s syndrome, the researchers report in Behavioral Neuroscience.
A study conducted at Cornell University in the USA shows that the offspring of mice did much better when females were fed choline during pregnancy, a compound present in e.g. in egg yolk, liver, nuts, broccoli and cauliflower. The researchers suggest that their conclusions may contribute to increasing the currently recommended choline dose (450 mg per day during pregnancy and 550 mg during breastfeeding).
The addition of an additional dose of choline to the maternal diet translated into a significant improvement in concentration and to some extent also regulated the emotional sphere in mice with Down syndrome, says Barbara Strupp from Cornell University.
It also found that increasing the choline dose reduced the risk of dementia, which people with Down syndrome often suffer from in middle age. The researchers also noticed a subtle but statistically significant improvement in learning ability in those parts of the offspring who did not have Down’s syndrome.
Mice received choline supplements for the three-week gestation period followed by the three-week feeding period. Six months later, Strupp and her team conducted a series of experiments for six months to compare the behavior of the offspring whose mothers had received additional choline with the offspring of mice that had not received supplements. Among others, impulsiveness, concentration or emotional control.
Although previous studies in both humans and animal models have found no correlation between choline use and cognitive performance, the researchers emphasize that its beneficial effects are likely only to be seen when it is delivered at a very early stage of development (PAP).