Abstract
BackgroundThe genome, the environment, and their interactions simultaneously regulate complex traits such as body composition and voluntary exercise levels. One such environmental influence is the maternal milieu (i.e., in utero environment or maternal care). Variability in the maternal environment may directly impact the mother, and simultaneously has the potential to influence the physiology and/or behavior of offspring in utero, post birth, and into adulthood. Here, we utilized a murine model to examine the effects of the maternal environment in regard to voluntary exercise (absence of wheel running, wheel running prior to gestation, and wheel running prior to and throughout gestation) on offspring weight and body composition (% fat tissue and % lean tissue) throughout development (~3 to ~9 weeks of age). Additionally, we examined the effects of ~6 weeks of maternal exercise (prior to and during gestation) on offspring exercise levels at ~9 weeks of age.ResultsWe observed no substantial effects of maternal exercise on subsequent male or female offspring body composition throughout development, or on the propensity of offspring to engage in voluntary wheel running. At the level of the individual, correlational analyses revealed some statistically significant relationships between maternal and offspring exercise levels, likely reflecting previously known heritability estimates for such traits.ConclusionsThe current results conflict with previous findings in human and mouse models demonstrating that maternal exercise has the potential to alter offspring phenotypes. We discuss our negative findings in the context of the timing of the maternal exercise and the level of biological organization of the examined phenotypes within the offspring.Electronic supplementary materialThe online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s12952-015-0032-x) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.
Highlights
The genome, the environment, and their interactions simultaneously regulate complex traits such as body composition and voluntary exercise levels
Uncovering the factors contributing to variation in exercise participation is important from a human health perspective, as physical activity has been shown to be an effective intervention on mortality outcomes [29]
Other rodent studies, investigating lower level phenotypes in offspring have been quite successful in demonstrating a fairly robust effect of running during gestation and lactation [4, 8]. At this time we are unaware of additional murine studies that have examined the effects of maternal exercise on the propensity of offspring to engage in voluntary wheel running behavior as adults
Summary
The genome, the environment, and their interactions simultaneously regulate complex traits such as body composition and voluntary exercise levels. One such environmental influence is the maternal milieu (i.e., in utero environment or maternal care). Variability in the maternal environment may directly impact the mother, and simultaneously has the potential to influence the physiology and/or behavior of offspring in utero, post birth, and into adulthood. Alterations in maternal environmental factors influence physiology of the mother [1], but have been shown to impact physiology of the offspring in utero, post birth, and into adulthood [6, 12]. Not the focus of the current investigation, paternal environment (experienced across the entire lifespan) has been shown to influence offspring phenotypes in both rats and mice [30, 33]
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