Be. Levin et E. Govek, GESTATIONAL OBESITY ACCENTUATES OBESITY IN OBESITY-PRONE PROGENY, American journal of physiology. Regulatory, integrative and comparative physiology, 44(4), 1998, pp. 1374-1379
Maternal obesity and genetic background can affect the development of
obesity and diabetes in offspring. Here we used selected strains of ra
ts resistant (DR) vs. susceptible to development of diet-induced obesi
ty (DIO) on high-energy (HE) diets to assess this issue. DR and DIO da
ms were fed either Chow or HE diet for 4 wk. DIO HE diet-fed darns and
additional DR rats fed a palatable liquid diet (Ensure) became more o
bese and hyperinsulinemic than the other groups. During lactation, all
dams were fed their respective diets, and offspring were fed Chow fro
m weaning to 16 wk of age. All offspring of DIO darns gained more weig
ht and had heavier retroperitoneal fat pads and higher leptin levels t
han DR progeny, but offspring of the more obese DIO HE dams had heavie
r fat pads and higher glucose levels than DIO Chow offspring. After 4
wk on HE diet, all DIO offspring gained more weight and had heavier to
tal adipose depots and higher insulin and leptin levels than DR offspr
ing. Offspring of DIO HE dams also gained more weight and had heavier
fat depots and higher leptin levels than DIO Chow offspring. Therefore
maternal obesity and hyperinsulinemia were associated with increased
obesity in those offspring already genetically predisposed to become o
bese.