Effect of maternal soy protein isolate consumption on hepatocarcinogenesis in adult rat offspring

Abstract

Maternal nutrition has been reported to program the offspring's susceptibility to later development of chronic diseases. Because we have observed increased liver proliferation in 3 week old offspring of dams fed a soy protein isolate (SPI) diet compared with offspring of dams fed a casein (CAS) diet, we investigated effects of maternal diets differing in protein source on diethylnitrosamine (DEN)‐induced hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) in adult offspring. Female SD rats were fed a casein diet (CAS) or a low‐isoflavone soy protein diet (SPI) for two weeks before mating and throughout pregnancy and lactation. Offspring were weaned to a chow‐diet throughout the study. To induce HCC, offspring were received i.p. injection of DEN once a week for 14 weeks. We did not observe any nodules in offspring injected with saline. Multiplicity of nodules increased in SPI/DEN group compared with CAS/DEN group. Consistently, we observed higher incidence of adenomas and HCCs in SPI/DEN group. There was no difference in hepatic damage as measured by serum ALT activity, although tumor necrosis factor α levels were higher in SPI/DEN group. Based on histological examination, difference in liver necrosis, inflammation, steatosis, and fibrosis was not observed between groups. Therefore, maternal nutrition may program DEN‐induced hepatocarcinogenesis in adult offspring. This work was supported by National Research Foundation of Korea.