
Prebiotic oligosaccharides are demonstrated to confer a wide spectrum of physiological benefits during pregnancy. In view of this, focused attempts are being directed towards understanding their role as modulators of brain chemistry and behavior. Epidemiological studies have identified that exposure to neurotoxins during prenatal/early life can profoundly impact neurodevelopment/function. In this context, we have tested the hypothesis that a combination of prebiotic supplements during gestation has the propensity to attenuate acrylamide (ACR) induced oxidative impairments, mitochondrial dysfunction and neurotoxicity in maternal and fetal brain of rats. To achieve this, pregnant dams given oral supplements of a combination of fructo- and xylooligosaccharides (FOS + XOS, 3 g/kg/day) during gestation days (GD 0–19) were exposed to ACR (200 ppm in drinking water, GD 6–19). The behavioral analysis revealed that ACR dams fed prebiotics displayed higher exploratory behavior in the open field test. The prenatal evaluation showed that ACR-induced decrements of placental/fetal weights were markedly restored with prebiotic feeding. Prebiotics significantly offset markers of oxidative stress, restored enzymic antioxidants, cholinergic and mitochondrial function in the maternal and fetal brain. Concomitantly, prebiotics restored ACR-induced depletion in the levels of dopamine and γ-aminobutyric acid in the maternal cortex that positively correlated with cecal bacterial numbers. Collectively, these data suggest that prenatal prebiotic oligosaccharide supplements protect developing brain against oxidative stress-mediated neurotoxicity. While the underlying mechanism/s by which prebiotics abrogate the impact of neurotoxicants in the developing brain merits further studies, we speculate that it may be mediated predominantly through attenuation of oxidative stress and proliferation of enteric microbiota.