Body composition and behaviour in adult rats are influenced by maternal diet, maternal age and high-fat feeding

Abstract

Fetal exposure to maternal undernutrition has lifelong consequences for physiological and metabolic function. Maternal low-protein diet is associated with an age-related phenotype in rats, characterised by a period of resistance to development of obesity in early adulthood, giving way to an obesity-prone, insulin-resistant state in later adulthood. Offspring of rats fed a control (18 % casein) or low-protein (9 % casein; LP) diet in pregnancy were challenged with a high-fat diet at 9 months of age. To assess whether other maternal factors modulated the programming effects of nutrition, offspring were studied from young (2–4 months old) and older (6–9 months old) mothers. Weight gain with a high-fat diet was attenuated in male offspring of older mothers fed LP (interaction of maternal age and diet; P = 0·011) and adipose tissue deposition was lower with LP feeding in both males and females (P < 0·05). Although the resistance to weight gain and adiposity was partially explained by lower energy intake in offspring of LP mothers (P < 0·001 males only), it was apparent that energy expenditure must be influenced by maternal diet and age. Assessment of locomotor activity indicated that energy expenditure associated with physical activity was unlikely to explain resistance to weight gain, but showed that offspring of older mothers were more anxious than those of younger mothers, with more rearing observed in a novel environment and on the elevated plus-maze. The data showed that in addition to maternal undernutrition, greater maternal age may influence development and long-term body composition in the rat.

Unripe Carica Papaya and Its Effect on Some Antioxidant Enzymes and Factors Associated With Vascular Disease in Models.

“…These foods are not only highly processed but they are also low in fiber, high in fat, and sugars. Epidemiological evidence suggests that nutritional lifestyle may program the risk of chronic degenerative diseases such as obesity, increased blood pressure, endothelial dysfunction, glucose intolerance, and renal impairment [33]. The progressive reductions in body weights [ Table 2] observed in animal feeds with test meal as against control indicated the potentials of the formulated diet to regulate excessive weight Dyslipidemias characterized by disorders in the levels of circulating TC, LDL-cholesterol (LDLc), diminished fraction of HDLc, and TG have been implicated in cardiovascular and vascular diseases [34].…”

Animal Foetal Models of Obesity and Diabetes – From Laboratory to Clinical Settings

“…The male offspring of the LP females also had less fat and a smaller adipocyte diameter than the animals in the control group, regardless of the dams' age. On the other hand, although the female offspring exhibited similar changes in adiposity, the maternal diet had no effect on their body weight or weight gain at 10 months of age (131). The offspring of PR mothers also seemed to be more sensitive to the deleterious effects of the HFD as they exhibited apparent catchup growth to match the body weight of the control counterparts fed the hypercaloric diet (125).…”

“…However, most of these studies showed that despite the lower birth weight observed in the offspring, these animals were often characterised by increased adiposity, gain of the adipose tissue or adipocyte size at later stages of life (124,128,129). Few studies showed that a lower body weight could persist for several days, weeks (126,127,130) or even for up to ten months, especially when the dam's age was taken into consideration, as Ware et al (131) observed. In their experiment dams were mated at different ages, i.e.…”

“…There is also some evidence [e.g. (14,15,131,133)] that exposure to maternal undernutrition programmes the adipose tissue in a sex-dependent manner, as it seems to be the case in humans. Recently Christians et al published a systematic review and meta-analysis, in which they analysed the effects of PR and FR on the physiological traits of offspring (e.g.…”

Paternal metabolic and cardiovascular programming of their offspring: A systematic scoping review

“…Velazquez et al (2016) could demonstrate that offspring from aged mice was prone to hypertension and showed higher weight gain in post-natal life than offspring of young female mice [100]. One explanation for these adverse pregnancy outcomes might be a decreased egg quality and an altered uterine environment of the mother [101]. In comparison with maternal age, there was also an obvious association between aged fathers and an increased risk for stillbirth, preterm birth, congenital malformations and offspring death [50,51,53,54].…”