Moderate caloric restriction during gestation in rats alters sympathetic innervation of white adipose tissue and later adiposity in offspring in a gender- and depot-dependent manner

A. P. GARCÍA; M. PALOU; J. SÁNCHEZ; T. PRIEGO; A. PALOU; C. PICÓ

Estambul

Congreso; 18th European Congress of Obesity; 2011

ABSTRACT Maternal prenatal undernutrition predisposes offspring to higher adiposity in adulthood. No data exist about possible programming effects on peripheral nervous system structures involved in white adipose tissue (WAT) development and metabolism. We aimed to evaluate the effects of moderate caloric restriction in rats during early pregnancy on offspring WAT sympathetic innervation and its relationship with adiposity development. For this purpose, inguinal and retroperitoneal WAT (iWAT and rpWAT, respectively) were analysed in male and female offspring of 20% caloric-restricted (from 1-12d of pregnancy) (CR) and from control dams. Body weight and the weight, DNA-content, morphological features and the immunoreactive tyrosine hydroxylase area (TH+, performed by immunohistochemistry) of both WAT depots were studied at 25d and 6m of age, the latter after 2m exposure to high fat diet. At 25d of life, CR males, but not females, showed lower TH+ in the iWAT, but not in the rpWAT, suggesting lower sympathetic innervation. At 6m, CR males, but not females, exhibited greater body weight, and greater weight and total DNA-content in the iWAT, without changes in the size of adipocytes, suggesting the development of hyperplasia in this depot. However, in the rpWAT, CR males showed larger adipocyte diameter, with no changes in DNA-content, suggesting the development of hypertrophy. The effects of gestational caloric restriction on later adiposity and on the differences in the adult phenotype between internal and subcutaneous fat depots in the male offspring may be associated in part with specific alterations in sympathetic innervation, which may impact on WAT architecture.