Maternal feeding associated to post-weaning diet affects metabolic and behavioral parameters in female offspring

Publication date: Available online 22 February 2019Source: Physiology & BehaviorAuthor(s): Joana Fisch, Vanessa Feistauer, Ana Carolina de Moura, Andrew Oliveira Silva, Vanessa Bollis, Marilene Poravski, Silvana Almeida, Renata Padilha Guedes, Alethea Gatto Barshack, Márcia GiovenardiAbstractGenetic and environmental factors related to maternal diet may predispose offspring to serious diseases. However, consequences of a maternal diet intervention during gestation and lactation, and its association with caloric restriction after weaning on the progeny are not completely known. In this context, the goal of the present study was to investigate how different maternal diets, control (CONT), hypercaloric (HD) or restrictive (RD) diets during gestation and lactation, may affect the metabolism and behavior of the offspring that was also submitted to RD. Experimental groups were abbreviated accordingly maternal/offspring diets: CONT/CONT, CONT/RD, RD/CONT, RD/RD, HD/CONT, HD/RD. Our results showed that glucose serum concentration is increased in mice from dams fed a HD. However, offspring from RD-fed dams showed lower insulin and leptin levels than the other groups, indicating a maternal diet effect. Moreover, animals from RD/CONT group showed a higher adipocyte area in comparison to both HD/CONT and CON/CONT. Offspring from RD-fed dams exhibited a decrease in lateral area locomotion in the open field test. Evaluation of anxiety-like behavior and recognition memory showed no signifi...
Source: Physiology and Behavior - Category: Physiology Source Type: research