Maternal Dietary Restriction Alters Offspring’s Sleep Homeostasis

Abstract

Nutritional state in the gestation period influences fetal growth and development. We hypothesized that undernutrition during gestation would affect offspring sleep architecture and/or homeostasis. Pregnant female mice were assigned to either control (fed ad libitum; AD) or 50% dietary restriction (DR) groups from gestation day 12 to parturition. After parturition, dams were fed AD chow. After weaning, the pups were also fed AD into adulthood. At adulthood (aged 8–9 weeks), we carried out sleep recordings. Although offspring mice displayed a significantly reduced body weight at birth, their weights recovered three days after birth. Enhancement of electroencephalogram (EEG) slow wave activity (SWA) during non-rapid eye movement (NREM) sleep was observed in the DR mice over a 24-hour period without changing the diurnal pattern or amounts of wake, NREM, or rapid eye movement (REM) sleep. In addition, DR mice also displayed an enhancement of EEG-SWA rebound after a 6-hour sleep deprivation and a higher threshold for waking in the face of external stimuli. DR adult offspring mice exhibited small but significant increases in the expression of hypothalamic peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor α (Pparα) and brain-specific carnitine palmitoyltransferase 1 (Cpt1c) mRNA, two genes involved in lipid metabolism. Undernutrition during pregnancy may influence sleep homeostasis, with offspring exhibiting greater sleep pressure.

Carnitine palmitoyltransferase 1C regulates cancer cell senescence through mitochondria-associated metabolic reprograming

“…CPT1C, as a functional enzyme in the outer mitochondrial membrane, is linked to lipid metabolism and cellular energy supply [16,17]. Besides the regulation of fatty acid oxidation, CPT1C also plays an important role in other physiological and pathological processes [18][19][20][21]. The current study revealed that CPT1C depletion is sufficient to trigger a senescence phenotype in other cancer cell lines.…”

Carnitine palmitoyltransferase 1C contributes to progressive cellular senescence

“…CPT1C, an enzyme located in the outer mitochondrial membrane [32], is involved in lipid metabolism, cellular energy supply [33][34][35] and other physiological or pathological processes [36][37][38][39]. The knockdown of CPT1C inhibited the tumorigenesis of PANC-1 cells in vivo [2,33] and further suppressed xenograft tumor growth in situ [2], suggesting that CPT1C represents a therapeutic target for cancer treatment.…”

Caloric Restricted Diets Anxiolytic Effect on Progeny

“…There is some evidence that shows that maternal diets can affect the behavior of the offspring. One study showed that sleep homeostasis was affected by the maternal diet (17). Prenatal calorie restriction has been shown to have a wide range of effects on progeny.…”