Maternal Western Diet Programs Cardiometabolic Dysfunction and Hypothalamic Inflammation via Epigenetic Mechanisms Predominantly in the Male Offspring [RNA-seq]
Maternal exposure during pregnancy is a strong determinant of offspring health outcomes. Such exposures induce changes in the offspring epigenome resulting in gene expression and functional changes. In this study, we investigated the effect of maternal Western hypercaloric diet (HCD) programming during the perinatal period and its effect on neuronal plasticity and cardiometabolic health in adult offspring. C57BL/6J dams were fed HCD for 1 month prior to mating with regular diet (RD) sires and kept on the same diet throughout pregnancy and lactation. At weaning, offspring were maintained on either HCD or RD for 3 months duration. Maternal programming resulted in male-specific hypertension and hyperglycemia, with both males and females showing increased sympathetic tone to the vasculature. Surprisingly, programmed male offspring fed on HCD exhibited lower glucose levels, less insulin resistance, and leptin levels compared to non-programmed HCD-fed male mice. Hypothalamic genes involved in glial and astrocytic differentiation were differentially methylated in programmed male offspring. Genes involved in inflammation and type 2 diabetes were targeted by differentially expressed miRNA in programmed male offspring. Methyl-seq data were supported by our findings of astrogliosis and microgliosis as well as increased microglial activation in programmed males in the paraventricular nucleus (PVN). Aligned with programming-induced protective effect in HCD male mice, we observed lower protein levels of hypothalamic TGFß2, NF-?B2, NF-?Bp65, Ser-pIRS1, and GLP1R compared to non-programmed HCD-fed male mice. In conclusion, our study shows that maternal HCD programs neuronal plasticity in the offspring and results in male-specific hypertension and hyperglycemia. On the other hand, we observed a compensatory role of programming potentially by priming metabolic pathways to handle excess nutrients in a more efficient way. Overall design: These are mRNA-seq data driven from the hypothalamus of programmed mice with perinatal hypercaloric diet and non-programmed mice with either postnatal HCD or regular diet. First part of the name refers to maternal diet and the second part refers to offspring diet.