Maternal feeding controls fetal biological clock.
BACKGROUND
It is widely accepted that circadian physiological rhythms of the fetus are affected by oscillators in the maternal brain that are coupled to the environmental light-dark (LD) cycle.


RESULTS
To study the link between fetal and maternal biological clocks, we investigated the effects of cycles of maternal food availability on the rhythms of Per1 gene expression in the fetal suprachiasmatic nucleus (SCN) and liver using a transgenic rat model whose tissues express luciferase in vitro. Although the maternal SCN remained phase-locked to the LD cycle, maternal restricted feeding phase-advanced the fetal SCN and liver by 5 and 7 hours respectively within the 22-day pregnancy.


CONCLUSIONS
Our results demonstrate that maternal feeding entrains the fetal SCN and liver independently of both the maternal SCN and the LD cycle. This indicates that maternal-feeding signals can be more influential for the fetal SCN and particular organ oscillators than hormonal signals controlled by the maternal SCN, suggesting the importance of a regular maternal feeding schedule for appropriate fetal molecular clockwork during pregnancy.
Ohta
Hidenobu
H
Center for Perinatal Medicine, Tohoku University Hospital, Sendai, Japan. hideohta@mail.tains.tohoku.ac.jp
Xu
Shanhai
S
Moriya
Takahiro
T
Iigo
Masayuki
M
Watanabe
Tatsuya
T
Nakahata
Norimichi
N
Chisaka
Hiroshi
H
Hanita
Takushi
T
Matsuda
Tadashi
T
Ohura
Toshihiro
T
Kimura
Yoshitaka
Y
Yaegashi
Nobuo
N
Tsuchiya
Shigeru
S
Tei
Hajime
H
Okamura
Kunihiro
K
D000818:Animals; D030801:Animals, Genetically Modified; D001683:Biological Clocks / Q000502:physiology*; D002940:Circadian Rhythm; D005247:Feeding Behavior / Q000502:physiology*; D005260:Female; D005333:Fetus / Q000378:metabolism*; D008425:Maternal Behavior / Q000502:physiology*; D011247:Pregnancy; D051381:Rats