Impact of perinatal prebiotic consumption on gestating mice and their offspring: a preliminary report

Abstract

To assess the impact of prebiotic supplementation during gestation and fetal and early neonatal life, gestating BALB/cj dam mice were fed either a control or a prebiotic (galacto-oligosaccharides -inulin, 9:1 ratio)-enriched diet throughout pregnancy and lactation, and allowed to nurse their pups until weaning. At the time of weaning, male offspring mice were separated from their mothers, weaned to the same solid diet as their dam and their growth was monitored until killed 48 d after weaning. Prebiotic treatment affected neither the body-weight gain nor the food intake of pregnant mice. In contrast, at the time of weaning, pups that had been nursed by prebiotic-fed dams had a higher body weight (11·0 (SE 1·2) g) than pups born from control dams (9·8 (SE 0·9) g). At 48 d after weaning, significantly higher values were observed for colon length and muscle mass in the offspring of prebiotic-fed dams (1·2 (SE 0·1) cm/cm and 5·7 (SE 1·8) mg/g, respectively), compared with control offspring (1·1 (SE 0·1) cm/cm and 2·9 (SE 0·9) mg/g, respectively), without any difference in spleen and stomach weight, or serum leptin concentration. The present preliminary study suggests that altering the fibre content of the maternal diet during both pregnancy and lactation enhances offspring growth, through an effect on intestinal and muscle mass rather than fat mass accretion.Key words: Prebiotics: Gestation: Development: NeonatesThe prevalence of the metabolic syndrome, as defined by the combination of abdominal obesity, impaired glucose tolerance, dyslipidaemia and hypertension (1) , is increasing throughout the world. This syndrome is associated with an increased risk of CVD and type 2 diabetes (1) . The pathophysiology of the metabolic syndrome is clearly multifactorial, and besides the direct impact of dietary imbalance, there is considerable evidence that adverse environmental influences during early development may increase disease risk in later life (2) . A prebiotic is a non-viable food component that confers a health benefit on the host associated with modulation of the microbiota (3) . Prebiotic consumption may be associated with various health benefits including a reduction of colorectal cancer risk (4) , a reduction of atopic dermatitis incidence in formulafed, high-risk infants (5) and the prevention of type 2 diabetes (6) . Several studies (7,8) have described the effect of prebiotic supplementation on body weight and fat mass in adult experimental animal models. In some studies (9) , the decrease in overall fat mass, and in the various deposits of white adipose tissue, is not associated with any effect on body weight. A recent study has shown that supplementation with a mix of inulin and fructo-oligosaccharides had a significant benefit on the maintenance of an appropriate BMI and fat mass accretion in non-obese adolescents (10) .However, very little is known about the effects of consuming a high-fibre diet during pregnancy and the development of the offspring (11) . Methods Experimental procedureThe experimen...

Prenatal caprine milk oligosaccharide consumption affects the development of mice offspring

“…Increased milk protein concentration observed in dams fed the CMO and GOS diet may have contributed to increased body weight and length and increased muscle mass observed in the pups at weaning. Accordingly, PICRUST analysis showed an increased representation of KEGG metabolic pathways of amino acid, carbohydrate, energy, and vitamin metabolism in pups at weaning from CMO and GOS‐fed dams.…”

“…Emerging evidence suggests that these bacteria may also colonise the infant GIT before birth . The manipulation of the maternal microbiota (in humans and rodents) through antibiotics , diet , and prebiotic intake has been shown to affect the microbiota transmitted to the offspring both quantitatively and qualitatively and offspring development . Therefore, the period from pregnancy to weaning is likely to be a critical window of opportunity for modifying the maternal GIT microbiota for improved infant development and long‐term health benefits.…”

Maternal Short-Chain Fructooligosaccharide Supplementation Influences Intestinal Immune System Maturation in Piglets

“…The effect of maternal prebiotic supplementation on offspring birth weight and postnatal growth is controversial with increased neonatal body weight in pigs and mice [27], [34], decreased neonatal body weight in dogs [26] or unchanged neonatal body weight in human [22]. The tendency to a lesser reduction in back fat thickness of scFOS sows during lactation in our study may be explained by an improved insulin sensitivity in scFOS animals since scFOS have been described to improve insulin sensitivity in obese insulin-resistant animals [35], [36].…”

Intervention strategies for cesarean section–induced alterations in the microbiota-gut-brain axis

“…Another study in mice suggests that altering the fiber content of the maternal diet during both pregnancy and lactation enhances offspring growth through an effect on intestinal and muscle mass rather than fat mass accretion 126 . In addition, results in piglets demonstrate that supplementation of prebiotics (short-chain fructo-oligosaccharides and polydextrose) modulates microbial colonization and alters signaling of short-chain fatty acids 127 .…”