Abstract
Lactation is a critical period during which maternal sub- or over-nutrition affect milk composition and offspring development that can have lasting health effects. The consequences of moderate high-fat, high-simple carbohydrate diet (WD) consumption by rat dams, during gestation and lactation, on milk composition and offspring blood lipidome and its growth, at weaning, were investigated by using a comprehensive lipidomic study on mass-spectrometric platform combined to targeted fatty- and free amino-acids analysis. This holistic approach allowed clear-cut differences in mature milk-lipidomic signature according to maternal diet with a similar content of protein, lactose and leptin. The lower WD-milk content in total fat and triglycerides (TGs), particularly in TGs-with saturated medium-chain, and higher levels in both sphingolipid (SL) and TG species with unsaturated long-chain were associated to a specific offspring blood-lipidome with decreased levels in TGs-containing saturated fatty acid (FA). The sexual-dimorphism in the FA-distribution in TG (higher TGs-rich in oleic and linoleic acids, specifically in males) and SL species (increased levels in very long-chain ceramides, specifically in females) could be associated with some differences that we observed between males and females like a higher total body weight gain in females and an increased preference for fatty taste in males upon weaning.
Highlights
As the prevalence of overweight and obesity is a growing global health problem [1], the number of infants born to obese mothers has increased [2,3] with subsequent increased risk of overweight and childhood obesity [4]
We found substantial differences in the offspring sphingomyelin profiles according to the maternal diet: the very-long chain Cer 24:0 and its associated ganglioside, the Lactosyl-Ceramide LacCer C24:0, were significantly increased in offspring suckled by western diet (WD)-fed dams, in females, whereas all species of sphingomyelin and especially, long-chain SM (SM 20:1 and SM 24:1) were decreased even more in males than in females offspring nursed with high fat diet-fed dams
Perinatal exposure to high energy diet is expected to impact mammary gland metabolism and milk composition, leading to specific changes in fuel utilization in the suckling pups when compared to perinatal exposure to a control diet
Summary
As the prevalence of overweight and obesity is a growing global health problem [1], the number of infants born to obese mothers has increased [2,3] with subsequent increased risk of overweight and childhood obesity [4]. The development of dys-metabolic and non-alcoholic hepatic steatosis phenotype observed in offspring exposed to maternal obesity in the postpartum period has been suggested to be induced by factors in breast milk which probably modify the brain centers of energetic homeostasis [21] These findings show that lactation is a vulnerable period during which transient insults can have lasting effects leading to impaired health outcomes in adulthood or accentuate the consequences of deleterious in utero environment, but with little knowledge to date on molecular actors. The reported health benefits of breastfeeding, both in infancy and later in life, against the development of overweight and obesity (at least in childhood), hypertension, hyper-cholesterolaemia, type 2 diabetes, and non-alcoholic fatty liver
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