International Day of Science, Technology and Innovation for the South!
Yesterday was International Day of Science, Technology and Innovation for the South!! ...which got us thinking about this BBC article earlier released this year declaring 'the power of choline, a simple nutrient, for brain health' and how our Bio-Imaging research group, headed by Prof Ernesta Meintjes and including Dr Fleur Warton and Dr Nadine Lingerer, have been studying this for a decade already!
They're just here, casually challenging the misconceptions 💅, and showing that ground-breaking research happens right here in Africa! 🌍
Their latest study, published in 2021, was entitled: 'Maternal choline supplementation mitigates alcohol exposure effects on neonatal brain volumes'.
A bit about the research:
Choline is an essential nutrient found naturally in foods such a liver, egg, fish and legumes, and is critical for building cell membranes, neurotransmitters, and regulating gene expression.
Alcohol exposure during pregnancy can disrupt brain development in profound ways and studies have suggested that prenatal choline supplementation may help soften some of these effects.
In their clinical trial, heavy-drinking pregnant women were given a daily choline supplement during pregnancy. Post-natal assessment of their infants showed improved early learning and memory, better growth and head circumference, and healthier neurodevelopmental markers compared to those whose mothers’ received the placebo. These findings align with decades of animal research showing that choline can support hippocampal development and enhance memory systems.
Choline is not a cure and cannot erase the risks of drinking during pregnancy. But it highlights an important truth: timing matters. Early, targeted nutritional interventions during pregnancy may provide the developing brain with tools to adapt more resiliently to adversity.
What is most exciting is the potential for such work to inform public health strategies in low-and-middle-income countries, like South Africa, where both fetal alcohol spectrum disorder prevalence and nutritional deficiencies are high. While their large-scale clinical trial is still ongoing, their data is suggesting that investing in maternal nutrition may indeed be a powerful form of early prevention.
Some of their previous studies in this area include: