title: Maternal obesity and fetal programming: effects of a high-carbohydrate nutritional modification in the immediate postnatal life of female rats.
abstract: Our earlier studies have shown that the artificial rearing of newborn rat pups [first generation high carbohydrate (1-HC)] on an HC milk formula resulted in chronic hyperinsulinemia and adult-onset obesity (HC phenotype). Offspring [second-generation HC (2-HC)] of 1-HC female rats spontaneously acquired the HC phenotype in the postweaning period. In this study, we have characterized the development of the abnormal intrauterine environment in the 1-HC female rats and the effects on fetal development under such pregnancy conditions for the offspring. 1-HC female rats demonstrated hyperphagia on laboratory chow and increased body weight gain beginning from the immediate postweaning period along with hyperinsulinemia and hyperleptinemia. During pregnancy, 1-HC female rats showed several metabolic alterations including increased body weight gain and increased plasma levels of insulin, leptin, proinflammatory markers, and lipid peroxidation products. Although there were no significant changes in the body weights or litter size of term 2-HC fetuses, the plasma levels of insulin and leptin were significantly higher compared with those of control term fetuses. Quantitation of mRNA levels by real-time RT-PCR indicated significant increases in the mRNA levels of orexigenic neuropeptides in the hypothalamus of 2-HC term fetuses. Collectively, these results indicate that the HC diet in infancy results in an adverse pregnancy condition in female rats with deleterious consequences for the offspring.
authors.affiliation: Departments of Biochemistry, School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences, University at Buffalo, State University of New York, New York 14214, USA.
authors.forename: Malathi
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Srinivasan
authors.forename: Catherine
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Dodds
authors.forename: Husam
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Ghanim
authors.forename: Tao
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Gao
authors.forename: Peter J
authors.initials: PJ
authors.lastname: Ross
authors.forename: Richard W
authors.initials: RW
authors.lastname: Browne
authors.forename: Paresh
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Dandona
authors.forename: Mulchand S
authors.initials: MS
authors.lastname: Patel
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D000831:Animals, Newborn / Q000502:physiology*; D004040:Dietary Carbohydrates / Q000494:pharmacology*; D004435:Eating / Q000502:physiology; D004624:Embryo Transfer; D005260:Female; D047109:Fetal Development / Q000502:physiology*; D006728:Hormones / Q000097:blood; D015227:Lipid Peroxidation / Q000187:drug effects; D008660:Metabolism / Q000502:physiology; D009747:Nutritional Physiological Phenomena; D009765:Obesity / Q000503:physiopathology*; D011247:Pregnancy; D011270:Pregnancy, Animal / Q000502:physiology*; D051381:Rats; D017207:Rats, Sprague-Dawley; D020133:Reverse Transcriptase Polymerase Chain Reaction; D015430:Weight Gain / Q000502:physiology
chemical_list: D004040:Dietary Carbohydrates; D006728:Hormones