Abstract
Background: Over half of women of reproductive age are now overweight or obese. The impact of maternal high-fat diet (HFD) is emerging as an important factor in the development and health of musculoskeletal tissues in offspring, however there is a paucity of evidence examining its effects on tendon. Alterations in the early life environment during critical periods of tendon growth therefore have the potential to influence tendon health that cross the lifespan. We hypothesised that a maternal HFD would alter biomechanical, morphological and gene expression profiles of adult offspring rotator cuff tendon.Materials and Methods: Female Sprague-Dawley rats were randomly assigned to either: control diet (CD; 10% kcal or 43 mg/g from fat) or HFD (45% kcal or 235 mg/g from fat) 14 days prior to mating and throughout pregnancy and lactation. Eight female and male offspring from each maternal diet group were weaned onto a standard chow diet and then culled at postnatal day 100 for tissue collection. Supraspinatus tendons were used for mechanical testing and histological assessment (cellularity, fibre organisation, nuclei shape) and tail tendons were collected for gene expression analysis.Results: A maternal HFD increased the elasticity (Young's Modulus) in the supraspinatus tendon of male offspring. Female offspring tendon biomechanical properties were not affected by maternal HFD. Gene expression of SCX and COL1A1 were reduced in male and female offspring of maternal HFD, respectively. Despite this, tendon histological organisation were similar between maternal diet groups in both sexes.Conclusion: An obesogenic diet during pregnancy increased tendon elasticity in male, but not female, offspring. This is the first study to demonstrate that maternal diet can modulate the biomechanical properties of offspring tendon. A maternal HFD may be an important factor in regulating adult offspring tendon homeostasis that may predispose offspring to developing tendinopathies and adverse tendon outcomes in later life.
Highlights
Obese and overweight individuals make up over a third of the world’s population and are projected to represent an estimated 60% by 2030 [1, 2]
There were no significant differences in free fatty acids, triglycerides, high-density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL), lowdensity lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL) and total cholesterol in either male or female offspring with maternal high fat diet (HFD) (Table 1)
There was no significant effect of maternal HFD in female offspring [37.71 (IQR 24.17) vs. 41.78 (IQR 22.62), P = 0.222]
Summary
Obese and overweight individuals make up over a third of the world’s population and are projected to represent an estimated 60% by 2030 [1, 2]. Maternal obesity is a risk factor for increased adiposity and glucose intolerance in adult offspring [17]. In rodent pre-clinical studies, maternal obesity can be modelled using a HFD through well-established methods that has been previously demonstrate to alter maternal and offspring metabolic profiles [18,19,20]. Over half of women of reproductive age are overweight or obese. The impact of maternal high-fat diet (HFD) is emerging as an important factor in the development and health of musculoskeletal tissues in offspring, there is a paucity of evidence examining its effects on tendon. We hypothesised that a maternal HFD would alter biomechanical, morphological and gene expression profiles of adult offspring rotator cuff tendon
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