MAternal Diabetes and neuropsychiAtric vulnerability in offspring: role of DNAmethylation

It is broadly accepted that early life events have consequences that persist through the lifespan. The incidence of maternal diabetesduring pregnancy increases and recent epidemiological studies suggest that maternal diabetes has detrimental effect on offspringvulnerability to develop mental disorders such as autism or schizophrenia. The aim of the present project is to examine the linksbetween the exposure to maternal diabetes and the ontogenesis of emotional disorders in the offspring and to examine theinvolvement of epigenetic processes. Using a well-established rat model of type 2 diabetes, we will dissect the respective role of pre-and postnatal factors in the offspring vulnerability by embryo transfer and cross-fostering strategies. To unravel the mechanismsinvolved we will explore epigenetic processes through the study of DNA methylation genome-wide in emotional-related brain areas(medial prefrontal cortex, amygdala, hypothalamic paraventricular nucleus).