Maternal High Fat Feeding Does Not Have Long-Lasting Effects on Body Composition and Bone Health in Female and Male Wistar Rat Offspring at Young Adulthood

Abstract

High fat diets adversely affect body composition, bone mineral and strength, and alter bone fatty acid composition. It is unclear if maternal high fat (HF) feeding permanently alters offspring body composition and bone health. Female rats were fed control (CON) or HF diet for 10 weeks, bred, and continued their diets throughout pregnancy and lactation. Male and female offspring were studied at weaning and 3 months, following consumption of CON diet. At weaning, but not 3 months of age, male and female offspring from dams fed HF diet had lower lean mass and higher fat and bone mass, and higher femur bone mineral density (females only) than offspring of dams fed CON diet. Male and female offspring femurs from dams fed HF diet had higher monounsaturates and lower n6 polyunsaturates at weaning than offspring from dams fed CON diet, where females from dams fed HF diet had higher saturates and lower n6 polyunsaturates at 3 months of age. There were no differences in strength of femurs or lumbar vertebrae at 3 months of age in either male or female offspring. In conclusion, maternal HF feeding did not permanently affect body composition and bone health at young adulthood in offspring.

Maternal high-fat diet inversely affects insulin sensitivity in dams and young adult male rat offspring

“…In offspring most of the studies have shown that prenatal exposure to an HF diet increases birth weight and weight gain in postnatal days. In this study, a decrease in food and energy intakes as well as body weight, which was observed in HF offspring, could be the result of changes in feeding regulatory centers programming or switching from the HF to a control diet (Miotto et al, 2013). Since HF offspring are exposed to high level of dams' corticosterone during critical period of life, their HPA axis programmings might be affected and cause a lower level of plasma corticosterone in adulthood.…”

“…Also reported are an impaired glucose tolerance and increased fasting insulin, associated with higher (Desai et al, 2014) or normal (Jacobs et al, 2014) fasting glucose concentrations. Moreover, some studies showed that HF diet consumption in rats (Cerf et al, 2012) or mice (Tuohetimulati et al, 2012) in pregnancy and lactation periods resulted in glucose intolerance and increased the homeostasis model assessment of insulin resistance (HOMA-IR) index (Cerf et al, 2012;Miotto et al, 2013) in offspring. The issue of the impact of maternal HF diet consumption on glucose homeostasis in both mother and offspring has attracted much attention and needs to be further clarified.…”

Maternal high-fat diet influences stroke outcome in adult rat offspring

“…There is accumulating evidence supporting that perinatal overnutrition or high-fat diet (HFD) consumption induces health problems in adult offspring, such as the metabolic syndrome, hypertension and cardiovascular dysfunction (Khan et al 2004, Alfaradhi & Ozanne 2011. Nevertheless, other studies have also reported that adult offspring of HFD-fed dams can have normal glucose tolerance and body composition (Miotto et al 2013, Platt et al 2014. More specifically, although numerous studies have indicated the cerebrovascular hazards of an increased intake of dietary fat in adults (Langdon et al 2011) or beginning in childhood (Deutsch et al 2009), it remains to be established whether HFD consumption during pregnancy and the suckling period can influence the cerebrovascular health of adult offspring.…”

High Saturated Fat Diet Alters the Lipid Composition of Triacylglycerol and Polar Lipids in the Femur of Dam and Offspring Rats

“…Bone fatty acid composition is altered by the type and amount of fatty acids consumed in developing rodents [1][2][3][4][5]. Specifically, high saturated fatty acid (SFA) diets (10-20 % SFA source by weight fed for 9-17 weeks) result in lower amounts of n-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFA) or n-6 PUFA in the femur [1,2] and alveolar bone [4] of developing male and female rats.…”

“…Specifically, high saturated fatty acid (SFA) diets (10-20 % SFA source by weight fed for 9-17 weeks) result in lower amounts of n-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFA) or n-6 PUFA in the femur [1,2] and alveolar bone [4] of developing male and female rats. However, high SFA diets that are thought to alter bone total lipid composition have either no effect [1] or a negative effect [6] on bone mineral content and/or density in 7-15 week old male and female rats.…”