Maternal diet-induced obesity in swine with leptin resistance modifies puberty and pregnancy outputs of the adult offspring

Abstract

The assessment of reproductive features (puberty, fertility and prolificacy) in female Iberian pigs indicates that exposition to intrauterine maternal malnutrition, either by deficiency or excess, is associated with juvenile obesity and a significantly earlier age of puberty onset. At adulthood, prenatal exposition to undernutrition affects reproductive outputs by diminishing prolificacy, an effect that was not found in females exposed to prenatal overnutrition.

Association between Dietary Patterns and Precocious Puberty in Children: A Population-Based Study

“…Soft drinks were generally sugar- and artificially sweetened beverages capable of causing immediate increases in circulating insulin concentrations. Studies found more frequent soft drink consumption to be predictive of earlier menarche through metabolic changes in insulin-mediated pathway mechanisms and upregulation of hormones, in addition to increased BMI [ 11 , 12 , 34 ].…”

Intra‐uterine programming of future fertility

“…While most research on the role of the early leptin surge has focused on its effect on offspring appetite control (Kirk et al, 2009), the programming of neuronal hypothalamic maturation through endoplasmic reticulum stress may also affect sexual function through effects on GnRH or Kisspeptin neurons (Bouret, Caron, et al, 2008; Guimiot et al, 2012; Lucaccioni et al, 2021), which may contribute to the altered fertility reported in offspring from obese dams. Interestingly, in leptin‐resistant Iberian pigs with high plasma leptin concentrations, both maternal undernutrition or excess nutrition during pregnancy were associated with excess fat deposition and earlier puberty in female offspring compared to controls, although only those that were underfed during pregnancy had reduced prolificacy (reduced litter size) in their first gestation (Gonzalez‐Bulnes et al, 2013).…”

“…Most studies based on epidemiological data in humans and experimental work in rodents, ruminants and pigs indicate small but significant effects of maternal undernutrition on offspring gonadal development, steroidogenesis, age at puberty, plasma concentrations of gonadotropins and inhibin B, folliculogenesis in females and Sertoli cell numbers in males and females (Chadio & Kotsampasi, 2014; Chavatte‐Palmer et al, 2014; Dupont et al, 2019; Gonzalez‐Bulnes et al, 2013; Pedrana et al, 2020; Teleken et al, 2020).…”