Maternal sucrose consumption alters behaviour and steroids in adult rat offspring

Abstract

Maternal diets can have dramatic effects on the physiology, metabolism, and behaviour of offspring that persist into adulthood. However, the effects of maternal sucrose consumption on offspring remain unclear. Here, female rats were fed either a sucrose diet with a human-relevant level of sucrose (25% of kcal) or a macronutrient-matched, isocaloric control diet before, during, and after pregnancy. After weaning, all offspring were fed a standard low-sucrose rodent chow. We measured indicators of metabolism (weight, adipose, glucose tolerance, liver lipids) during development and adulthood (16-24 wk). We also measured food preference and motivation for sugar rewards in adulthood. Finally, in brain regions regulating these behaviours, we measured steroids and transcripts for steroidogenic enzymes, steroid receptors, and dopamine receptors. In male offspring, maternal sucrose intake decreased body mass and visceral adipose, increased preference for high-sucrose and high-fat diets, increased motivation for sugar rewards, and decreased mRNA levels of Cyp17a1 (an androgenic enzyme) in the nucleus accumbens. In female offspring, maternal sucrose intake increased basal corticosterone levels. These data demonstrate the profound, enduring, diverse, and sex-specific effects of maternal sucrose consumption on offspring phenotype.

The maternal microbiome modifies adverse effects of protein undernutrition on offspring neurobehavioral impairment in mice

“…Indeed, T-cell differentiation promoted by maternal gut bacteria has been reported to underlie behavioral deficits in offspring following maternal immune activation 24,84 . Although we interpret these changes to be due to low levels of protein in the PR diet, high-sucrose diets during gestation have also been shown to alter offspring brain and behavior 85,86 . While the PR diet has comparably lower sucrose levels than used in high-sucrose models (15% kcal coming from increased sucrose and cellulose in PR compared to CD, versus 25% kcal from sucrose alone in a high-sucrose model 85 ), and we see minimal carbohydrate metabolites affected in PR maternal serum and fetal brains, sucrose is significantly higher in PR fetal brain compared to CD.…”

Ultrasensitive Quantification of Multiple Estrogens in Songbird Blood and Microdissected Brain by LC-MS/MS

“…A value was considered non-detectable if it was below the lowest standard on the calibration curve. When 20% or more of the samples in a group (blood or brain region) were detectable, then the non-detectable values were estimated via quantile regression imputation of left-censored missing data using MetImp web tool (Tobiansky et al, 2021(Tobiansky et al, , 2020Wei et al, 2018aWei et al, , 2018b. Data were imputed for each season and each estrogen independently, and imputed values were between 0 and the lowest standard on the calibration curve.…”

Paternal preconceptional diet enriched with n-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids affects offspring brain function in mice

“…Although the underlying mechanisms for gender differences in parental effects on offspring are not completely known, genetics, epigenetics and gene imprinting, together with the contribution of distinct gonadal steroid hormones and associated inflammatory responses and gene expression, may be involved in this sex dimorphism ( 76 – 80 ). It is acceptable that the sex-specific, male-line transmissions are mediated by the sex chromosomes, X and Y ( 73 ), and that paternally expressed genes are generally growth promoting, whereas maternally expressed genes are growth restricting ( 81 ).…”