Gestational programming of impaired brown adipose tissue innervation and obesity in rats is offset only in females by differential innervation of white adipose tissue

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

Sevilla

Congreso; 22nd IUBMB & 37th FEBS Congress; 2012

nternational Union of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology and Federation of European Biochemical Societies

We recently described that excessive fat accumulation in adult male offspring of calorie-restricted pregnant rats may be associated with reduced sympathetic innervation in the inguinal adipose tissue (iWAT), leading to hyperplasia. Here, we aimed to assess whether brown adipose tissue (BAT) is also less innervated as a consequence of this prenatal imprinted-condition and whether these alterations in iWAT and BAT could affect lipid metabolism and energy balance regulation capacity. Offspring of control and 20% calorie-restricted rats (days 1?12 of pregnancy) (CR) were studied at the age of 25-days. Body weight and iWAT and BAT weights were recorded. Protein levels of TH (iWAT and BAT) and UCP1 (BAT) and mRNA expression of lipid metabolism-related genes (iWAT and BAT) were analyzed. No differences were found in body weight or iWAT and BAT weights between control and CR. In iWAT, CR males, but not females, displayed lower TH levels than controls, in accordance with the described lower sympathetic innervation. This was accompanied by sex-dependent changes in mRNA levels of ATGL, LPL and CPT1, with a tendency to lower levels in males and higher levels in females. In BAT, both genders of CR displayed lower TH and UCP1 levels than controls, as well as lower LPL and CPT1 mRNA levels. These results suggest that adipose tissue sympathetic innervation is impaired in CR animals, but in a sex- and tissue-dependent manner, and may be responsible for the detrimental effects of gestational caloric restriction on adult body weight and related metabolic alterations, and is more exacerbated in males.