Early undernutrition attenuates the inflammatory response in adult rat offspring

Abstract

Objective: We determined the impact of maternal food restriction during gestation and lactation or lactation alone on basal inflammation and lipopolysaccharide (LPS)-stimulated cytokine induction in adult female offspring.

Study design: From 10 days of gestation to term, pregnant rats received either ad libitum (control) feed or were 50% food restricted (FR). Pups were either nursed by their own dams or were cross-fostered to give three groups, namely, Control (AdLib/AdLib), FR during lactation (AdLib/FR) and FR during pregnancy and lactation (FR/FR). All offspring were weaned to ad libitum rat chow. At 9 months of age, basal inflammation and LPS-stimulated cytokine responsiveness were determined in female offspring.

Results: The basal CRP levels were elevated in AdLib/FR and FR/FR as compared to Controls. In contrast, LPS induction of IL-1beta and IL-6 was significantly attenuated in the AdLib/FR and FR/FR offspring as compared to the Control group.

Conclusions: These findings suggest that early undernutrition, particularly during prenatal and postnatal periods, affects offspring immune competence by increasing basal inflammation while reducing cytokine induction to inflammatory stimuli.