title: Maternal exercise during pregnancy reduces risk of mammary tumorigenesis in rat offspring.
abstract: Breast cancer is the most common cancer among women. Emerging research indicates that modifying lifestyle factors during pregnancy may convey long-term health benefits to offspring. This study was designed to determine whether maternal exercise during pregnancy leads to reduced mammary tumorigenesis in female offspring. Pregnant rats were randomly assigned to exercised and sedentary groups, with the exercised group having free access to a running wheel and the sedentary group housed with a locked wheel during pregnancy. Female pups from exercised or sedentary dams were weaned at 21 days of age and fed a high fat diet without access to a running wheel. At 6 weeks, all pups were injected with the carcinogen N-methyl-N-nitrosourea. Mammary tumor development in all pups was monitored for 15 weeks. Pups from exercised dams had a substantially lower tumor incidence (42.9%) compared with pups from sedentary dams (100%). Neither tumor latency nor histological grade differed between the two groups. These data are the first to demonstrate that exercise during pregnancy potentiates reduced tumorigenesis in offspring. This study provides an important foundation towards developing more effective modes of behavior modification for cancer prevention.
authors.affiliation: Departments of aBiological Sciences bNutrition Science cAnimal Sciences dHealth and Kinesiology, Purdue University, West Lafayette, Indiana, USA.
authors.forename: Ignacio G
authors.initials: IG
authors.lastname: Camarillo
authors.forename: Leon
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Clah
authors.forename: Wei
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Zheng
authors.forename: Xuanzhu
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Zhou
authors.forename: Brienna
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Larrick
authors.forename: Nicole
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Blaize
authors.forename: Emily
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Breslin
authors.forename: Neal
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Patel
authors.forename: Diamond
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Johnson
authors.forename: Dorothy
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Teegarden
authors.forename: Shawn S
authors.initials: SS
authors.lastname: Donkin
authors.forename: Timothy P
authors.initials: TP
authors.lastname: Gavin
authors.forename: Sean
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Newcomer
mesh_terms: D000230:Adenocarcinoma / Q000139:chemically induced / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000517:prevention & control*; D000818:Animals; D005260:Female; D015994:Incidence; D015674:Mammary Neoplasms, Animal / Q000139:chemically induced / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000517:prevention & control*; D008770:Methylnitrosourea; D010805:Physical Conditioning, Animal / Q000502:physiology*; D011247:Pregnancy; D011297:Prenatal Exposure Delayed Effects / Q000453:epidemiology; D051381:Rats; D017207:Rats, Sprague-Dawley; D012307:Risk Factors
chemical_list: D008770:Methylnitrosourea