Dataset Information

A maternal high-fat, high-sucrose diet has sex-specific effects on fetal glucocorticoids with little consequence for offspring metabolism and voluntary locomotor activity in mice.

ABSTRACT: Maternal overnutrition and obesity during pregnancy can have long-term effects on offspring physiology and behaviour. These developmental programming effects may be mediated by fetal exposure to glucocorticoids, which is regulated in part by placental 11?-hydroxysteroid dehydrogenase (11?-HSD) type 1 and 2. We tested whether a maternal high-fat, high-sucrose diet would alter expression of placental 11?-HSD1 and 2, thereby increasing fetal exposure to maternal glucocorticoids, with downstream effects on offspring physiology and behaviour. C57BL/6J mice were fed a high-fat, high-sucrose (HFHS) diet or a nutrient-matched low-fat, no-sucrose control diet prior to and during pregnancy and lactation. At day 17 of gestation, HFHS dams had ~20% lower circulating corticosterone levels than controls. Furthermore, there was a significant interaction between maternal diet and fetal sex for circulating corticosterone levels in the fetuses, whereby HFHS males tended to have higher corticosterone than control males, with no effect in female fetuses. However, placental 11?-HSD1 or 11?-HSD2 expression did not differ between diets or show an interaction between diet and sex. To assess potential long-term consequences of this sex-specific effect on fetal corticosterone, we studied locomotor activity and metabolic traits in adult offspring. Despite a sex-specific effect of maternal diet on fetal glucocorticoids, there was little evidence of sex-specific effects on offspring physiology or behaviour, although HFHS offspring of both sexes had higher circulating corticosterone at 9 weeks of age. Our results suggest the existence of as yet unknown mechanisms that mitigate the effects of altered glucocorticoid exposure early in development, making offspring resilient to the potentially negative effects of a HFHS maternal diet.

SUBMITTER: Chin EH

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5354465 | biostudies-literature | 2017

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

ACCESS DATA

Publications

A maternal high-fat, high-sucrose diet has sex-specific effects on fetal glucocorticoids with little consequence for offspring metabolism and voluntary locomotor activity in mice.

Chin Eunice H EH Schmidt Kim L KL Martel Kaitlyn M KM Wong Chi Kin CK Hamden Jordan E JE Gibson William T WT Soma Kiran K KK Christians Julian K JK

PloS one 20170316 3

Maternal overnutrition and obesity during pregnancy can have long-term effects on offspring physiology and behaviour. These developmental programming effects may be mediated by fetal exposure to glucocorticoids, which is regulated in part by placental 11β-hydroxysteroid dehydrogenase (11β-HSD) type 1 and 2. We tested whether a maternal high-fat, high-sucrose diet would alter expression of placental 11β-HSD1 and 2, thereby increasing fetal exposure to maternal glucocorticoids, with downstream eff ...[more]

PMID: 28301585

Similar Datasets

Project description:BackgroundMetabolic and endocrine environment during early life is crucial for metabolic imprinting. When dams were fed a high fat diet (HF diet), rat offspring developed hypothalamic leptin resistance with lean phenotype when weaned on a normal diet. Interestingly, when grown on the HF diet, they appeared to be protected against the effects of HF diet as compared to offspring of normally fed dams. The mechanisms involved in the protective effect of maternal HF diet are unclear.Methodology/principal findingsWe thus investigated the impact of maternal high fat diet on offspring subjected to normal or high palatable diet (P diet) on metabolic and endocrine parameters. We compared offspring born to dams fed P or HF diet. Offspring born to dams fed control or P diet, when fed P diet exhibited a higher body weight, altered hypothalamic leptin sensitivity and metabolic parameters suggesting that maternal P diet has no protective effect on offspring. Whereas, maternal HF diet reduces body weight gain and circulating triglycerides, and ameliorates corpulence index of offspring, even when subjected to P diet. Interestingly, this protective effect is differently expressed in male and female offspring. Male offspring exhibited higher energy expenditure as mirrored by increased hypothalamic UCP-2 and liver AdipoR1/R2 expression, and a profound change in the arcuate nucleus astrocytic organization. In female offspring, the most striking impact of maternal HF diet is the reduced hypothalamic expression of NPY and POMC.Conclusions/significanceHF diet given during gestation and lactation protects, at least partially, offspring from excessive weight gain through several mechanisms depending upon gender including changes in arcuate nucleus astrocytic organization and increased hypothalamic UCP-2 and liver AdipoR1/2 expression in males and reduced hypothalamic expression of NPY and POMC in females. Taken together our results reveal new mechanisms involved in the protective effect of maternal HF diet.

Dataset Information

A maternal high-fat, high-sucrose diet has sex-specific effects on fetal glucocorticoids with little consequence for offspring metabolism and voluntary locomotor activity in mice.

Publications

A maternal high-fat, high-sucrose diet has sex-specific effects on fetal glucocorticoids with little consequence for offspring metabolism and voluntary locomotor activity in mice.

Similar Datasets

OmicsDI is part of the ELIXIR infrastructure

Tweets