Effect of maternal antioxidant supplementation and/or exercise practice during pregnancy on postnatal overnutrition induced by litter size reduction: Brain redox homeostasis at weaning

Abstract

Prenatal and early postnatal environments can permanently influence health throughout life. Early overnutrition increases the risk to develop chronic diseases. Conversely, the intake of flavonoids and exercise practice during pregnancy seem to promote long-term benefits to offspring. We hypothesized that benefic interventions during pregnancy could protect against possible postnatal neurochemical alterations caused by overnutrition induced by reduced litter size. Female Wistar rats were divided into four groups: (1) sedentary + vehicle, (2) sedentary + naringenin, (3) swimming exercise + vehicle, and (4) swimming exercise + naringenin. One day after birth, the litter was culled to 8 pups (control) or 3 pups (overfed) per dam, yielding control and overfed subgroups for each maternal group. Serum of 21-days-old pups was collected, also the cerebellum, hippocampus, and hypothalamus were dissected. Litter size reduction increased fat mass and enhanced body weight. Maternal interventions, when isolated, caused reduced glucose serum levels in offspring nurtured in control litters. In the cerebellum, reducing the litter size decreased the activity of thioredoxin reductase, which was prevented by maternal supplementation with naringenin. Hippocampus and hypothalamus have shown altered antioxidant enzymes activities in response to litter size reduction. Interestingly, when maternal exercise and naringenin supplementation were allied, the effect disappeared, suggesting a concurrent effect of the two maternal interventions. In conclusion, exercise or naringenin supplementation during pregnancy can be important interventions for combating the increasing rates of overweight during the infancy and its related neurochemical changes, especially when applied isolated.

Maternal N-Acetyl Cysteine Intake Improved Glucose Tolerance in Obese Mice Offspring

“…Our results show for the first time that early life consumption of NAC decreased the deleterious metabolic effects caused by HFD feeding of the adult. Our data are in accord with previous study demonstrating the benefits of polyphenols antioxidants given to healthy rats, on the response of offspring to overfeeding, induced by reducing litter size [12]. In addition, flavonoids given to healthy mice during pregnancy, improved the antioxidant capacity of the adult offspring [61].…”

“…In addition, flavonoids given to healthy mice during pregnancy, improved the antioxidant capacity of the adult offspring [61]. Our results, as well as the above mentioned publications [12,62] demonstrated that maternal antioxidant supplementation might be beneficial for offspring health, even when given to healthy mothers, which are not expected to experience oxidative stress.…”

“…Accordingly, antioxidants might negate the adverse effect of intrauterine oxidative stress, although the effect of antioxidant consumption during pregnancy and lactation on the development of diabetes in offspring at adulthood has scarcely been studied. The benefit of antioxidant given during prenatal period was demonstrated in a previous study, showing that polyphenol antioxidant, given to normal rats during pregnancy, improved the outcomes of postnatal over-nutrition [12]. On the other hand, a growing body of evidence suggests that a tightly controlled exposure to the oxidative milieu in-utero is highly important for a proper fetal development [9].…”

Tricarboxylic acid cycle dehydrogenases inhibition by naringenin: experimental and molecular modelling evidence

“…Naringenin (50 mg/kg) was suspended in sunflower oil (1 ml/kg), which was used as vehicle, and administered by gavage 5 d/week (Monday to Friday) for the 3 weeks of pregnancy to treated rats. The dose was defined according to its neuroprotective action (62,64) and did not interfere on pregnancy rate, gestational weight gain, litter size or weight at birth, as shown previously (3) .…”

Adaptive effects of gestational caloric restriction in the mitochondria of Wistar rats' brain: A DOHaD approach

“…This concept evolved from Barker's studies on the thrifty phenotype, or Barker's hypothesis (Barker et al, 1989). Our group already showed how several different interventions may influence the offspring health when applied during pregnancy, such as Caloric Restriction (CR) (Stone et al, 2019), food restriction (FR) (Stone et al, 2016), high‐salt diet (Stocher et al, 2018), polyphenol supplementation (August et al, 2018), and swimming exercise (August et al, 2018; Klein et al, 2018, 2019; Marcelino et al, 2013).…”