Influence of prenatal stress on metabolic abnormalities induced by postnatal intake of a high-fat diet in BALB/c mice

ANDRÉS PROCHNIK; ANA MARÍA GENARO; SOFIA QUIROGA; MARIANA TELLECHEA; YAMILA JUAREZ; MIRIAM RUTH WALD; ADRIANA BURGUEÑO

Journal of Developmental Origins of Health and Disease

Cambridge University Press

Lugar: Cambridge; Año: 2020 p. 1 - 10

2040-1744

Prenatal insults during fetal development result in increased likelihood of developing chronicdisease. Obesity, the biggest risk factor for the development of metabolic disease, is affected byseveral genetic and environmental factors. High-fat diet (HFD) consumption is usually linkedwith the development of obesity. The main goal of this study was to analyze the impact of theexposure to a HFD in prenatally stressed animals. For this purpose, we subjected pregnantBALB/c mice to restraint stress for 2 h a day between gestational day (GD) 14 and GD 21.Prenatally stressed and control offspring of both sexes were postnatally exposed to a HFDfor 24 weeks. We found that prenatal stress (PS) per se produced disturbances in males suchas increased total blood cholesterol and triglycerides, with a decrease in mRNA expression ofsirtuin-1. When these animals were fed a HFD, we observed a rise in glucose and insulin levelsand an increase in visceral adipose tissue gene expression of leptin, resistin, and interleukin-1beta. Although females proved to be more resilient to PS consequences, when they were fed aHFD, they showed significant metabolic impairment. In addition to the changes observed inmales, females also presented an increase in body weight and adiposity and a rise in cholesterollevels.