Maternal supplementation of egg yolk modulates brain functional organization and functional outcomes of offspring

Maternal nutrition during the perinatal stage is critical to offspring brain development. Egg yolks are a balanced and nutrient-dense food that is rich in bioactive components crucial to optimal neurodevelopment early in life. Egg consumption is often recommended to pregnant women to enhance both maternal and fetal health. We hypothesized that maternal intake of egg yolk from late gestation and throughout lactation would enhance functional organization and cognitive developmental outcomes in offspring using a pig model. Sows were fed a control diet (n = 6) or a diet containing egg yolks (n = 5, 350 mg egg yolk powder/kg BW/day, equivalent to ∼3 eggs/day for humans) from late gestation through lactation. At weaning, piglet offspring (n = 2/sow, total n = 22) underwent structural magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and resting-state-functional MRI. Piglets underwent novel object recognition testing to assess hippocampal-dependent learning and memory. Functional MRI results demonstrated that egg yolk significantly increased functional activation in the executive network (p = 0.0343) and cerebellar network (p = 0.0253) in piglets when compared to control. Diffusion tensor imaging analysis showed that perinatal intake of egg yolks significantly increased white matter fiber length in the hippocampus (p = 0.0363) and cerebellum (p = 0.0287) in piglet offspring compared to control piglets. Furthermore, piglets from egg yolk-fed sows spent significantly more proportional frequency exploring the novel object than the familiar object in novel object recognition testing (p = 0.0370). The findings from this study support egg yolk-altered activation of specific brain networks may be associated with functional cognitive outcomes in weaning piglets.