Maternal Overfeeding During Lactation, Rather Than Overweight Per Se, Impairs the Metabolic Response to Fed/Fasting Changing Conditions in the Post-Weaning Offspring

Abstract

[eng] The metabolic response to fed/fasting changing conditions at early age in rats with different predisposition to obesity-related alterations due to maternal conditions during the perinatal period is studied. Methods and results: Offspring of dams made obese by a cafeteria diet and moved to a normal-fat diet 1 month before gestation (O-PCaf, with an apparently normal phenotype in adulthood), and offspring of cafeteria diet-fed dams during lactation (O-CAF, with a thin-outside-fat inside phenotype), together with the offspring of control dams (O-C), are studied at early age. Fasting is associated with downregulation of lipogenesis-related genes in liver and rpWAT, and upregulation of genes related to lipolysis and fatty acid uptake in rpWAT in O-C animals. The response to fed/fasting conditions is impaired in O-CAF, but not in O-PCaf animals. The fasting-induced increase in the expression of Prkaa1 in liver and rpWAT, and the corresponding increase of hepatic AMPK 1 protein levels of O-C animals are attenuated in O-CAF rats, while no alterations are found in O-PCaf animals versus controls. Conclusion: Maternal intake of a cafeteria diet during lactation causes early alterations in the offspring, impairing their metabolic flexibility in response to fed/fasting changing conditions, which may contribute to hindering energy homeostasis maintenance.