Abstract
Essential polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFAs) prevent cardiometabolic diseases. We aimed to study whether a diet supplemented with a mixture of n-6/n-3 PUFAs, during perinatal life, attenuates outcomes of long-term metabolic dysfunction in prediabetic and obese mice. Seventy-day-old virgin female mice were mated. From the conception day, dams were fed a diet supplemented with sunflower oil and flaxseed powder (containing an n-6/n-3 PUFAs ratio of 1.2 : 1.0) throughout pregnancy and lactation, while control dams received a commercial diet. Newborn mice were treated with monosodium L-glutamate (MSG, 4 mg g−1 body weight per day) for the first 5 days of age. A batch of weaned pups was sacrificed to quantify the brain and pancreas total lipids; another batch were fed a commercial diet until 90 days of age, where glucose homeostasis and glucose-induced insulin secretion (GIIS) as well as retroperitoneal fat and Lee index were assessed. MSG-treated mice developed obesity, glucose intolerance, insulin resistance, pancreatic islet dysfunction, and higher fat stores. Maternal flaxseed diet-supplementation decreased n-6/n-3 PUFAs ratio in the brain and pancreas and blocked glucose intolerance, insulin resistance, GIIS impairment, and obesity development. The n-6/n-3 essential PUFAs in a ratio of 1.2 : 1.0 supplemented in maternal diet during pregnancy and lactation prevent metabolic dysfunction in MSG-obesity model.
Highlights
Functional foods containing vitamins and/or antioxidants in addition to other substances are used to treat metabolic disorders and have been shown to mitigate metabolic syndrome progression [1, 2]
This study demonstrates that metabolic dysfunction is attenuated, or even blocked, by n-6/n-3 essential fatty acid supplementation in the maternal diet
This is the first study showing that metabolic alterations, reflected by the Lee index, pancreatic islets dysfunction, and glucose intolerance, are restored in monosodium L-glutamate (MSG)-obese mice whose mothers were exposed to fatty acid supplementation during pregnancy and lactation
Summary
Functional foods containing vitamins and/or antioxidants in addition to other substances are used to treat metabolic disorders and have been shown to mitigate metabolic syndrome progression [1, 2]. Among other obesity-models, the obesity induced by neonatal treatment with monosodium L-glutamate (MSG) is an interesting tool to study the effects of obesity and diabetic condition on different metabolic parameters This model is characterized by hyperinsulinemia and higher insulin secretion associated with early hyperglycemia in MSG-treated mice [10,11,12]. MSG-induced obesity that is caused in neonatal rodents by partial destruction of the hypothalamus brain area which concentrates neuronal nuclei controlling body weight and energy metabolism has been long reported [13, 14] All these dysfunctions in this model are essential to make the MSG-obese and prediabetic mice a good model to study metabolic diseases and its associated disturbances
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