Pauline LAFENETRE "Voluntary exercise prevents obesogenic diet-induced spatial and social memory deficits"

The increase of the obesity pandemic is favored by an overconsumption of energy-dense food and a
sedentary lifestyle. While obesity is associated with adverse anxiety and cognitive consequences,
physical exercise improves physiological and behavioral outcomes. The aim of this study was to assess
the potential beneficial effects of physical exercise on cognitive deficits induced by obesogenic high-fat
diet (HFD) consumption in mice.
At weaning, mice were exposed either to a high fat high sucrose diet (HFD) or a control diet, and were
housed either with an igloo (sedentary) or to a running wheel (exercise) for twelve weeks. Their spatial
memory and flexibility in the Morris water maze was assessed as well as their preference to social
novelty in the three-chamber test. Moreover, the expression of plasticity markers was quantified in the
hippocampus and/or in the plasma. As expected, exercise was able to prevent weight gain and fat
storage induced by HFD but it also restored impaired spatial memory and social memory. However,
HFD-induced impairment of spatial flexibility was not rescued by exercise.
Our approach points out that HFD exposure during adolescence can induce behavioral alterations that
can mainly be prevented by concomitant exercise, likely through improvement of hippocampal