Repercussions of maternal exposure to high-fat diet on offspring feeding behavior and body composition: a systematic review

Abstract

Maternal nutrition is an environmental determinant for offspring growth and development, especially in critical periods. Nutritional imbalances during these phases can promote dysregulations in food intake and feeding preference in offspring, affecting body composition. The aim of this review is to summarize and discuss the effects of maternal high-fat diet (HFD) on offspring feeding behavior and body composition. A search was performed in the PUBMED, SCOPUS, Web of Science, and LILACS databases. Inclusion criteria were studies in rodents whose mothers were submitted to HFD that assessed outcomes of food or caloric intake on offspring and food preference associated or not with body weight or body composition analysis. At the end of the search, 17 articles with the proposed characteristics were included. In these studies, 15 articles manipulated diet during pregnancy and lactation, 1 during pregnancy only, and 1 during lactation only. Maternal exposure to a HFD leads to increased food intake, increased preference for HFDs, and earlier food independence in offspring. The offspring from HFD mothers present low birthweight but become heavier into adulthood. In addition, these animals also exhibited greater fat deposition on white adipose tissue pads. In conclusion, maternal exposure to HFD may compromise parameters in feeding behavior and body composition of offspring, impairing the health from conception until adulthood.

The impact of maternal high-fat diet on offspring neurodevelopment

“…In addition to the behavioral and molecular phenotypes identified in the mHFD offspring, multiple publications have reported that maternal obesity leads to aberrant feeding patterns and disturbed metabolic programming in the offspring. Such outcomes of mHFD were beyond the scope of this review as there are other comprehensive publications that have focused on this particular aspect of maternal nutrition (Chaves et al, 2021;Gawlińska et al, 2021;Larsen and Bode, 2021).…”

Maternal High-Fat Diet Controls Offspring Kidney Health and Disease

“…Although a growing number of animal studies have been reported to determine the impact of a maternal high-fat diet on offspring outcomes [ 20 , 21 , 58 , 59 ], only a few studies evaluated renal programming. In this review, we only considered studies restricting exposure to cover the period of nephrogenesis.…”

Maternal High-Fat Diet and Offspring Hypertension

“…The effect of a maternal HFD on the offspring has been examined in rats [ 7 , 8 ], mice [ 7 , 8 ], rabbits [ 21 ], pigs [ 22 ], and non-human primates [ 23 ]. A systematic review recruiting 17 animal studies demonstrated that maternal HFD may compromise parameters in feeding behavior and body composition of offspring [ 24 ]. Another systemic review including 11 studies identified the risk of type 2 diabetes and obesity in male offspring exposed to a maternal HFD [ 25 ].…”