Impact of LGI diet and exercise during experimental obese pregnancy on maternal and offspring cardiometabolic disorders

Lovegrove, Elizabeth (2015) Impact of LGI diet and exercise during experimental obese pregnancy on maternal and offspring cardiometabolic disorders. Proceedings of the Physiological Society, 34 (C22).

Record type: Meeting abstract

Abstract

The establishment of developmental programming has identified the intrauterine environment as possible target for interventions to reduce the adverse effects of maternal obesity, in particular the risk for childhood obesity and cardio-metabolic disease in later life. A lifestyle interventions study was conducted in obese pregnant rats to improve maternal and offspring physiological and biochemical profiles. In the maternal intervention study, at gestational day (GD) 7, control and high-fat fed obese rats (n=6-10) were assigned to either Con [control], Ob [obese] or Ob-lgi, Ob-phys and Ob-phys-lgi group (physical activity [phys] and low glycemic index [LGI] diet). Exercise and LGI interventions were maintained until GD 17. Dams were sacrificed on GD 19 and maternal and fetal tissues were collected. In the offspring protocol, at gestational day (GD) 7, control and high-fat fed obese rats (n=6-10) were assigned either to Con, Ob or Ob-phys-lgi group. Exercise intervention was maintained until GD 17 and LGI diet until day 14 of lactation. Offspring were followed-up until 8-10 months. Six weeks of obesogenic feeding in the lifestyle intervention study prior to mating and during pregnancy increased intra-abdominal fat, resulting in an increase in overall body weight. In addition, high-fat feeding was associated with poor reproductive success and metabolic abnormalities including hyperleptinaemia and hyperinsulinaemia in response to oral glucose challenge. The low glycaemic index diet and exercise interventions reduced maternal fat depots, calorific intake and improved reproductive success. However, the interventions had no effect on maternal organ weights, retroperitoneal white adipose GLUT 4 mRNA expression, fetal and placental weights. In the follow up offspring study, dams in Ob-phys-lgi group showed a significant reduction in gestational weight gain compared to Ob dams (P<0.001). At GD 18, Ob dams were insulin resistant (P<0.01). Ob-phys-lgi dams showed a tendency to decrease blood insulin and HOMA-IR at 30-minute time point post glucose challenge. At GD 19, Ob dams showed enhanced levels of serum leptin and increased white adipose tissue weights compared to Con dams (P<0.01). The interventions led to substantive reversal of maternal fat pad mass and serum leptin (P<0.01). At PD 90, body weight gain and mean arterial pressure of offspring from Ob dams was significantly higher than Con offspring. However, the interventions had no effect on offspring organ weights, blood pressures, serum lipid profile and liver SREBP-1, IRS-1 and PKC-1 mRNA expression. Female offspring of obese dams were susceptible to adiposity after a food challenge at 8-10 months. LGI diet and exercise seem to be a promising intervention to prevent the adverse outcomes associated with maternal obesity but appears to have minimal effect on offspring cardio-metabolic function.

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