OFFSPRING OF OBESE DAMS PRESENT CHANGES IN RESPIRATORY AND SYMPATHETIC ACTIVITIES

Abstract

Obesity in dams is associated with the development of several pathologies in the offspring, including cardiovascular and hormonal dysfunctions. In this study, we investigated the pattern of respiratory and sympathetic activities in the offspring of dams treated with a high‐fat diet (HFD − 45% fat). Adult female Holtzman rats (250 g) were fed with standard diet (SD) or HFD during 6 weeks before, during gestation and lactation. After weaning, male offspring of SD dams (O‐SD) or HFD dams (O‐HFD) were fed with SD. At P28–32, O‐SD and O‐HFD rats were surgically prepared to obtain the arterially‐perfused in situ preparation to examine the thoracic sympathetic, phrenic, hypoglossal and abdominal activities under basal conditions and during peripheral chemoreceptors activation (KCN −0.05%). O‐HFD rats exhibited augmented baseline phrenic inspiratory (0.80 ± 0.04 vs O‐SD: 0.57 ± 0.07 s; n=6; p < 0.05) and hypoglossal pre‐inspiratory times (0.60 ± 0.11 vs O‐SD: 0.27 ± 0.08 s, n=4; p < 0.05) compared to O‐SD. Additional expiratory bursts were observed in baseline abdominal activity of O‐HFD group, indicating the presence of active expiration (8.5 ± 2.5 vs O‐SD: 1.3 ± 0.6 events/min, n = 4 p < 0.05). Moreover, O‐HF rats showed weakened baseline respiratory‐related modulation of sympathetic activity compared to O‐HFD group. In response to stimulation of peripheral chemoreceptors, O‐HFD group showed greater abdominal reflex responses (212 ± 20 vs O‐SD: 134 ± 21 %; n = 4; p<0.05), but no significant differences were noted in the others recorded nerves comparing to O‐SD. The results indicate that male offspring of HFD‐fed dams exhibit changes in baseline respiratory pattern associated with the presence of active expiration, and blunted respiratory‐sympathetic coupling. Part of these changes persist during peripheral chemoreceptor stimulation.Support or Funding InformationFAPESP (2016/23513‐1; 2013/17251‐6) and CNPq (425586/2016‐2).This abstract is from the Experimental Biology 2018 Meeting. There is no full text article associated with this abstract published in The FASEB Journal.