Chronic consumption of purple grape juice in gestational-lactation and post lactation promotes anxiolity effect and antioxidant defense improvement in brain from Wistar male offsprings

Our objective was to evaluate the effect of purple grape juice Vitis labrusca L consumption during pregnancy-lactation and/or post-lactation on the brain-behavior and oxidative stress parameters of male offspring. We used 48 male offspring from 14 Wistar rats. They were fed grape juice or water by gavage daily for 42 days (gestation and lactation). Afterwards, the offspring were divided into groups, water or juice, fed daily by gavage (7 μL/g) for 30 days post-lactation. After the treatment, the behavioral tests were performed. We analyzed the body weight (g) gain during the post-lactation treatment. Subsequently, they were euthanized and cortex, hippocampus and cerebellum were removed for analysis. About the body weight gain we didn't observed any differences between the groups. In the open field test, the grape juice consumption (pregnancy and in post-lactation period) increased grooming and latency and led to a decrease in the number of fecal bolus. However, grape juice consumption during pregnancy or on post-lactation period promoted a reduction on protein oxidation in the cerebellum and cortex, and increased non-enzymatic defense in all tissues. Juice consumption during pregnancy promoted an increase in SOD activity in the cortex and hippocampus. CAT activity was modulated by the consumption of juice during pregnancy, in cortex the activity decreased and in the hippocampus it increased. Grape juice consumption during pregnancy may promote health benefits of offspring, such as reducing damage to proteins, increasing non-enzymatic antioxidant defenses and modulating the activity of enzymes SOD and CAT also promoting an anxiolytic effect in the offspring.