ESPE Abstracts

Maternal nutrition can have significant long-term consequences on energy homeostasis in the offspring. However, whether resveratrol, with antioxidant and anti-obesity actions, can improve the impact of poor maternal nutrition on offspring metabolism remains largely unknown. We hypothesized that resveratrol intake by dams would protect the offspring against the harmful effects of a maternal high fat diet (HFD). We also determined if resveratrol’s effects are diet and sex dependent. Female Wistar rats received a low-fat diet (LFD; 3.8 Kcal/g, 10.2% fat) or HFD (5.1 Kcal/g, 61.6% fat) during pregnancy and lactation. Half of each group received resveratrol (+R) in their drinking water (50 mg/L; intake 2.0–2.5 mg/Kg per day). Offspring were weaned onto standard chow on postnatal day (PND) 21. Body weight (BW) and energy intake (EI) were measured weekly until PND150. Glycemia, serum insulin and leptin levels, lipid profile, as well as adipose mass and its expression (RT-PCR) of adipokines and enzymes, were determined. On PND150, offspring from HFD mothers weighed more than those from LFD (P<0.0001). Maternal resveratrol decreased the BW of females from HFD mothers (P<0.004) but increased it in those from LFD dams (P<0.001), such that BW of females from LFD+R dams was similar to that of females from HFD mothers. This tendency did not reach statistical significance in males. Offspring from HFD dams had higher accumulated EI than those from LFD dams (males: P<0.001; females: P<0.01), with maternal resveratrol decreasing EI in males from HFD dams (P<0.001) and their weight gain in males (P<0.05). Resveratrol increased EI in pups from LFD mothers, reaching statistical significance in females (P<0.01). The relative amount of visceral adipose tissue (VAT) and serum leptin levels paralleled the changes in BW. Resveratrol increased leptin levels in female offspring from mothers on LFD (P<0.0001) and tended to decrease them in offspring of HFD dams (NS). Changes in proliferator-activated-receptor-gamma expression (PPARγ) paralleled those found in BW and VAT. PAPP-A expression in VAT, involved in adipose metabolism, was lower in females than in males (P<0.0001) with a differential effect of resveratrol decreasing its expression in females from HFD dams (P=0.001) and increasing it in males from LFD dams (P=0.01). Conclusions: 1) Maternal resveratrol intake during pregnancy and lactation has long-term effects on metabolism in the offspring. 2) These effects depend on the type of diet ingested by the mother and the offspring’s sex. Acknowledgement: CIBEROBN, PI1600485, BFU2017-82565-C2-1-R.