Sex-specific resilience of neocortex to food restriction

• DOI: 10.7554/elife.93052
• Publication Date: 2023-12-15T15:36:57Z
• Authors: Zahid Padamsey; Danai Katsanevaki; Patricia Maeso; Manuela Rizzi; Emily E Osterweil; Nathalie L Rochefort
• Keywords: Neocortex; Calorie Restriction

Mammals have evolved sex-specific adaptations to reduce energy usage in times of food scarcity. These are well described for peripheral tissue, though much less is known about how the energy-expensive brain adapts restriction, and such differ across sexes. Here, we examined restriction impacts function primary visual cortex (V1) adult male female mice. Molecular analysis RNA sequencing V1 revealed that males, but not females, significantly modulated canonical, energy-regulating pathways, including pathways associated waith AMP-activated protein kinase, peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor alpha, mammalian target rapamycin, oxidative phosphorylation. Moreover, found contrast females did affect ATP or coding precision (assessed by orientation selectivity). Decreased serum leptin be necessary triggering energy-saving changes during restriction. Consistent with this, decreased food-restricted males no significant change females. Collectively, our findings demonstrate cortical mice more resilient than males. The neocortex, therefore, contributes sex-specific, response