MATERNAL OVERWEIGHT ALTERS THE SEXUAL MATURATION IN MALE OFFSPRING BY MODIFYING THE TESTICULAR HISTOLOGY AND TESTOSTERONE LEVELS

GALARZA, ROCÍO A.; CONDEMI, SANTIAGO; FALETTI, ALICIA G.; RHON CALDERÓN, ERIC A.; CORTEZ, ANALÍA E.; BIZZOZZERO, MARIANNE; LUX-LANTOS VICTORIA

Capital Federal

Congreso; Reunión Conjunta de Sociedades de Biociencias; 2017

An appropriate maternal body weight is needed for a normal fetal programming. Previous studies showed that maternal overweight affects the size and body weight, ano-genital distance, sperm count and morphology of the germ cells. Now, we studied whether the maternal overweight affects the testicular morphology and the levels of testosterone. To this end, male offspring from rats fed with standard (OSD) or cafeteria (OCD) diet, with high lipid content, were used. Considering the percentage of maternal overweight, the OCD were divided into two groups: offspring from rats with 25% and higher than 35% of overweight (OCD25 and OCD35, respectively). Offspring always were fed with standard diet and were euthanized at 60 days of age to obtain testes and blood serum. Seminiferous tubular diameter (STD), thickness of the seminiferous epithelium (SE) and tubular lumen diameter (TLD), expressed in μm, and the serum levels of testosterone, expressed in ng/ml, were examined. All data are expressed as mean±SEM and statistical analysis was performed by one-way ANOVA with Dunnett´s multiple comparison test or Kruskal-Wallis test with Dunn´s multiple comparison test. Compared with OSD (STD: 59±2, SE: 15±1), both OCD groups exhibited decrease in STD and SE, although these changes were only significant for OCD35 (STD: 41±4; P