Deleterious effects of high-fat diet on perinatal and postweaning periods in adult rat offspring

Abstract

Background & aims: Pre- and postnatal environmental changes can reset the developmental path during intrauterine development leading to obesity and cardiovascular and metabolic disorders later in life. The effects of high-fat diets on body mass, fat mass, the plasma level of glucose, insulin and leptin, as well as the insulin/glucose ratio and cardiovascular parameters in adult rat offspring were studied.

Methods: Pregnant Wistar rats in a standard chow group (SC) or high-fat chow group (HFC), at weaning their SC and HFC offspring were randomly divided into two postnatal groups: fed on SC or HFC. With euthanasia at 6-month-old, three-way ANOVA there were three-factor interactions among gender, perinatal diet and postweaning diet to body mass (BM), BP, left ventricle (LV) thickness, carbohydrate metabolism, plasma corticosterone concentrations and leptin/fat mass/adipocyte size pattern.

Results: HFC/SC and SC/HFC offspring of both genders had high BM and BP, which were increased in HFC/HFC offspring. There was hyperinsulinism, hyperleptinemia, as well as high insulin/glucose ratio and high plasma corticosterone concentrations mainly in HFC/HFC offspring with adipocytes and LV hypertrophy.

Conclusions: Postweaning HFC was deleterious to the health of adult offspring from dams fed HFC during pregnancy and then during the first half of lactation period. HFC administrated in both periods shows supplementary effects, elevating BP with consequent LV hypertrophy, altering carbohydrate metabolism, plasma corticosterone concentrations and disturbing leptin/fat mass/adipocyte size pattern.