Maternal obesity, lipotoxicity and cardiovascular diseases in offspring

Cardiovascular Consequences of Childhood Obesity

“…The in utero environment is influenced by maternal obesity, possibly mediated by low-grade inflammation or cardiovascular risk factors, particularly gestational diabetes, and might have adverse developmental programming influences on the offspring, predisposing them to obesity and accelerated atherosclerosis. 10,11 Excessive weight gain from birth to 18 months of age has been shown to be associated with later overweight and obesity, greater central adiposity, and higher blood pressure and C-reactive protein, leading to greater carotid extra-medial thickness measured at age 8 years. 12,13 A similar association, including greater arterial stiffness, was noted in children assessed at age 5 years.…”

Maternal high-fat diet during pregnancy or lactation changes the somatic and neurological development of the offspring

“…Currently 65% of the population in the world lives in countries in which obesity causes more deaths than malnutrition 2 . Moreover, the induced-high fat diet (HFD) maternal obesity has risen dramatically over the past 20 years, by nearly 42% in African-Americans and 29% in Caucasians 3 . Within this context, fetuses and newborns are increasingly exposed to maternal HFD which may cause problems in growth and brain deve lopment 4 .…”

“…On the other hand, also more interestingly, changes in dietary fat content modify milk lipid content and daily milk lipid production in lactating animals 28 . It seems that in both situations the offspring's brain development may be vulnerable to the effects of lipotoxicity or lipid peroxidation induced by maternal high-fat intake 3 . In addition, the lipotoxicity resulting from maternal HFD is capable of activating a number of stress signaling cascades including pro-inflammatory cytokines and oxidative stress 3,8 , which can damage the neurodevelopment of the offspring In studies Sullivan et al 29 Raibstein-and Peleg et al 6 were demonstrated up-regulation of the 5-HT1A inhibitory autoreceptor in the offspring of dams fed HFD.…”

Experimental Hyperleptinemia in Neonatal Rats Leads to Selective Leptin Responsiveness, Hypertension, and Altered Myocardial Function

“…5 We and others have repeatedly observed cardiovascular dysfunction secondary to maternal obesity in animal models. [6][7][8] Previously, we observed that juvenile offspring of obese rats have aberrant autonomic control of blood pressure (BP) resulting in hypertension, which occurs before the development of increased adiposity and persists into adulthood, 7 and that these animals demonstrate hyperphagia and leptin resistance associated with a functional, structural, and cell-signaling deficit in leptin-sensitive processes in the arcuate nucleus and paraventricular nucleus of the hypothalamus. 9 The cardiovascular response to exogenous leptin, which is mediated through hypothalamic sympathetic efferent activity, 10,11 was, conversely, enhanced.…”