Disturbance of placental and fetal rat development caused by cafeteria diet.

JORGELINA G. VARAYOUD; JORGE G RAMOS; MA. FLORENCIA ROSETTI; OLIVER ZIERAU; CORA STOKER; MARLISE GUERRERO SCHIMPF,; ENRIQUE H. LUQUE.; ROCIO SCHUMACHER; MA. PAULA GASTIAZORO,

Otro; Annual Young Active Research in Endocrinology; 2017

Obesity is increasingly common in Western societies and is associated with fetal and placental growth restriction. The mechanism underlying the fetal and placental growth restriction is unknown. In addition, estrogens, through estrogen receptors (ERs) affect placental and fetal development. The aim was evaluated the cafeteria diet (CAF) effects on: 1) reproductive performance and serum levels of Estradiol and Progesterone hormones, 2) fetal and placental growth on gestational day 21 (GD21),3) weight of pups at birth and 4) expression of ER alpha (ERa) mRNA in rat placentas on DG21. Twenty-one-day-old female Wistar rats were fed after weaning with a standard rodent chow diet (control) or cafeteria diet (CAF)with highly palatable energy dense foods. On postnatal day 90, rats were mated to evaluate the reproductive performance, placental and fetal weight, and placental-fetal weight ratio.Total RNA from the frozen placenta samples (GD21) was extracted and subjected to real-time RT-PCR analysis of ERa transcripts. The CAF diet did not alter reproductive performance, serum levels of hormones and fetal weights, however CAF group showed a decrease placental weight, placental-fetal weight ratio, and weight of pups at birth. Furthermore, the ERα mRNA expression was lower in CAF group. These results suggest that CAF diet alters the fetal and placental development with a down regulation of ERα mRNA expression in placental tissues.