Moderate High Caloric Maternal Diet Impacts Dam Breast Milk Metabotype and Offspring Lipidome in a Sex-Specific Manner

Abstract

Lactation is a critical period during which maternal sub- or over-nutrition affect milk composition and offspring development that can have lasting health effects. The consequences of moderate high-fat, high-simple carbohydrate diet (WD) consumption by rat dams, during gestation and lactation, on milk composition and offspring blood lipidome and its growth, at weaning, were investigated by using a comprehensive lipidomic study on mass-spectrometric platform combined to targeted fatty- and free amino-acids analysis. This holistic approach allowed clear-cut differences in mature milk-lipidomic signature according to maternal diet with a similar content of protein, lactose and leptin. The lower WD-milk content in total fat and triglycerides (TGs), particularly in TGs-with saturated medium-chain, and higher levels in both sphingolipid (SL) and TG species with unsaturated long-chain were associated to a specific offspring blood-lipidome with decreased levels in TGs-containing saturated fatty acid (FA). The sexual-dimorphism in the FA-distribution in TG (higher TGs-rich in oleic and linoleic acids, specifically in males) and SL species (increased levels in very long-chain ceramides, specifically in females) could be associated with some differences that we observed between males and females like a higher total body weight gain in females and an increased preference for fatty taste in males upon weaning.

Reverting to a Healthy Diet during Lactation Normalizes Maternal Milk Lipid Content of Diet‐Induced Obese Rats and Prevents Early Alterations in the Plasma Lipidome of the Offspring

“…Moreover, it is noteworthy that the plasma TG profile in REV-pups, also in terms of double bounds, was fully normalized to that of CON-pups, in both males and females. This is in accordance with the results obtained by Alexandre-Gouabau et al, [12] in which the lower content of TG with saturated medium-chain FA, together with the higher content of TG with unsaturated long-chain FA, in the milk of dams fed with WD during gestation and lactation, were associated to a blood lipidome of their offspring with reduced levels of TG containing saturated FA. Thus, our results suggest that the plasma TG composition in pups during lactation is reflecting both the maternal diet during this period and the metabolic status of the animals already at this early age.…”

“…[ 10 ] Thus, intervention studies in rodents have shown that the intake of an obesogenic diet during the perinatal period negatively affects the structure and function of the mammary gland and therefore the composition of milk, [ 11 ] including altered metabolism‐regulating hormones and fatty acids (FA) profiles. [ 12,13 ]…”

Lactation as a programming window for metabolic syndrome

“…However, other studies did not find any relation between total protein content in mature breast milk and maternal total energy or total protein intake, 33 as well as between total protein content in breast milk and the dietary content of carbohydrates and fat 26 . In rodent models, milk protein content was also found to be unaffected in animals fed, during gestation and lactation alone, with low protein 34,35 and with high energy 36 diet.…”

Mitochondrial DNA Copy Number and Developmental Origins of Health and Disease (DOHaD)

“…Today, a number of epidemiological studies and animal model studies suggest that environmental factors in embryonic, fetal, neonatal, and early childhood periods are associated with health and disease in adulthood and old age, including the risk of developing chronic diseases, supporting the DOHaD theory [ 68 , 69 , 70 , 71 , 72 , 73 , 74 , 75 , 76 , 77 ]. For example, in cases of food deprivation during pregnancy, the fetus acquires an energy-saving constitution in anticipation of the environment after birth, in which nutrient intake may be insufficient [ 78 ].…”