Perinatal Polyunstaurated Fatty Acids Supplementation Causes Alterations in Fuel Homeostasis in Adult Male Rats but does not Offer Resistance Against STZ-induced Diabetes

Abstract

Maternal factors can have major imprinting effects on homeostatic mechanisms in the developing fetus and newborn. Here we studied whether supplemented perinatal polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFAs) influence energy balance and fuel homeostasis later in life. Between day 10 after conception and day 10 after delivery, female rats were subjected to chow enriched with 10% fish-oil (FO-rich). Fish oil contains high concentrations of n-3 biosynthesis endpoint products, which may have caused the increased membrane phospholipid incorporation (particularly derived from the long-chain 20 +:n-3 PUFAs) in 10-day old pup brains. Adult male offspring of FO-rich fed rats had reduced body weight (- 20%) at 3 months, and had lower levels of plasma leptin (- 54%), insulin (- 41%), triglycerides (- 65%), and lactate (- 46%) than controls. All differences between groups were lost 48 h after streptozotocin (STZ) treatment. At 4.5 months of age, body weights of FO-rich were still lower (- 6%) than controls, but were associated with increased food intake, and increased insulin sensitivity (following intraperitoneal injection) to lower blood glucose levels relative to controls. We concluded that perinatal FO supplementation has lasting effects on body weight homeostasis and fuel metabolism in male offspring, but does not offer resistance against STZ-induced diabetes.

Maternal Supplementation With Avocado (Persea americana Mill.) Pulp and Oil Alters Reflex Maturation, Physical Development, and Offspring Memory in Rats

“…Neurons in the neonatal phase are activated through different memory processes (Tronel et al, 2015). Learning and memory processes are performed in the hippocampus dentate gyrus in cooperation with the cerebral cortex (Eichenbaum and Lipton, 2008; Coutureau and Di Scala, 2009), and PUFAs, through metabolic imprinting mechanisms affect brain functions during the development phase and promote permanent effects (van Dijk et al, 2011; Yehuda, 2012).…”

Developmental docosahexaenoic and arachidonic acid supplementation improves adult learning and increases resistance against excitotoxicity in the brain

“…The long-term effects of n-3 LC-PUFA supplementation during development may be explained by the metabolic imprinting mechanism occurring in the developing brain (38). It may be hypothesized that these PUFA's are involved in metabolic programming and cognitive functions during fetal development.…”

“…Other nutrients like for example choline has also been shown to exert functional imprinting regarding learning and memory (30). Fetal undernourishment (4) as well as feeding of a cafeteria diet (17) may predispose obesity and related metabolic diseases in the offspring and these perinatal conditions are associated with low maternal PUFA availability for the developing fetus (38). Metabolic imprinting is accompanied by epigenetic molecular changes, but results on these processes on LC-PUFA's have not been available yet.…”