Early Postnatal Overfeeding and Diabetes Susceptibility

Abstract

Milk intake of suckling rats was controlled by adjusting little size at birth to maximum (small litter, overnutrition), ten (normal litter, normal nutrition) or about 19 (large litter, undernutrition) pups. After weaning all animals received the same diet ad libitum. Overnutrition before weaning resulted in an early postnatal hyperinsulinaemia, decreased glucose tolerance and increased susceptibility to streptozotocin-induced diabetes in adulthood. However, the preweaning undernutrition seemed to have no preventive effect on diabetes susceptibility in adulthood. The study suggested that early postnatal overnutrition, which is associated with an early postnatal hyperinsulinemia, can increase diabetes susceptibility in adult life.

Postnatal early overfeeding induces hypothalamic higher SOCS3 expression and lower STAT3 activity in adult rats

“…Moreover, earlier studies corroborates our finding of elevated glucose and higher insulin levels at weaning [46,52]. Other groups showed that older animals other than those used in our study (8 months old) still continued to be insulin resistant [6,11]. However, in our 6-month-old animals, we did not find any remarkable signal of insulin resistance.…”

“…Postnatal early overnutrition (EO) can be induced by litter size reduction, which is an appropriate experimental model to study short-and long-term consequences of childhood obesity. Animals raised in small litter (SL) develop hyperphagia, obesity, hypertension and hyperinsulinemia in later life [6][7][8][9][10][11].…”

Oxidative stress programming in a rat model of postnatal early overnutrition — role of insulin resistance

“…At weaning, SL rats have insulin resistance characterized by an increase in fasting glucose levels and hyperinsulinemia, while at 6 months old, these animals showed a slight impairment in glucose tolerance test, 60 and 120 minutes after glucose load, suggesting insulin resistance, despite basal normoglycemia and normoinsulinemia [7]. Other reports showed that older (8 months old) SL rats present insulin resistance, suggesting that insulin resistance in this experimental model seem to be age dependent [10,11].…”

“…This model of postnatal early overnutrition (EO) was associated with hyperphagia, obesity, hypertension and hyperinsulinemia in adult life [10][11][12][13][14]. Other studies have suggested that oxidative stress, the imbalance between cellular production of reactive oxygen species (ROS) and antioxidant defenses in cells, could be an early event in the development of obesity-related chronic diseases, such as cardiovascular diseases, diabetes mellitus and cancer [15,16].…”

Intrauterine protein restriction combined with early postnatal overfeeding was not associated with adult-onset obesity but produced glucose intolerance by pancreatic dysfunction

“…Early postnatal overnutrition can be induced by litter size reduction, which is an appropriate experimental model to study short- and long-term consequences of childhood obesity. Animals raised in a small litter have been shown to develop hyperphagia, hyperinsulinemia, hyperleptinemia and hypertension [4-6], as well as higher total and visceral fat mass, lower HDL-C and central leptin resistance in adult life [7]. …”