To assess the impact of prebiotic supplementation during gestation and fetal and early neonatal life, gestating BALB/cj dam mice were fed either a control or a prebiotic (galacto-oligosaccharides -inulin, 9:1 ratio)-enriched diet throughout pregnancy and lactation, and allowed to nurse their pups until weaning. At the time of weaning, male offspring mice were separated from their mothers, weaned to the same solid diet as their dam and their growth was monitored until killed 48 d after weaning. Prebiotic treatment affected neither the body-weight gain nor the food intake of pregnant mice. In contrast, at the time of weaning, pups that had been nursed by prebiotic-fed dams had a higher body weight (11·0 (SE 1·2) g) than pups born from control dams (9·8 (SE 0·9) g). At 48 d after weaning, significantly higher values were observed for colon length and muscle mass in the offspring of prebiotic-fed dams (1·2 (SE 0·1) cm/cm and 5·7 (SE 1·8) mg/g, respectively), compared with control offspring (1·1 (SE 0·1) cm/cm and 2·9 (SE 0·9) mg/g, respectively), without any difference in spleen and stomach weight, or serum leptin concentration. The present preliminary study suggests that altering the fibre content of the maternal diet during both pregnancy and lactation enhances offspring growth, through an effect on intestinal and muscle mass rather than fat mass accretion.Key words: Prebiotics: Gestation: Development: NeonatesThe prevalence of the metabolic syndrome, as defined by the combination of abdominal obesity, impaired glucose tolerance, dyslipidaemia and hypertension (1) , is increasing throughout the world. This syndrome is associated with an increased risk of CVD and type 2 diabetes (1) . The pathophysiology of the metabolic syndrome is clearly multifactorial, and besides the direct impact of dietary imbalance, there is considerable evidence that adverse environmental influences during early development may increase disease risk in later life (2) . A prebiotic is a non-viable food component that confers a health benefit on the host associated with modulation of the microbiota (3) . Prebiotic consumption may be associated with various health benefits including a reduction of colorectal cancer risk (4) , a reduction of atopic dermatitis incidence in formulafed, high-risk infants (5) and the prevention of type 2 diabetes (6) . Several studies (7,8) have described the effect of prebiotic supplementation on body weight and fat mass in adult experimental animal models. In some studies (9) , the decrease in overall fat mass, and in the various deposits of white adipose tissue, is not associated with any effect on body weight. A recent study has shown that supplementation with a mix of inulin and fructo-oligosaccharides had a significant benefit on the maintenance of an appropriate BMI and fat mass accretion in non-obese adolescents (10) .However, very little is known about the effects of consuming a high-fibre diet during pregnancy and the development of the offspring (11) .
Methods
Experimental procedureThe experimen...