Endocrine Abstracts

Maternal obesity is associated with altered metabolic function in the offspring, but its age and sex-specific metabolic effect not clearly defined. Female adult Sprague–Dawley (SD) rats were fed an obesogenic diet – high fat diet of 7.76 kcal/g (experimental group) or standard rat chow (3.52 kcal/g, control group) for 8 weeks prior to mating and throughout gestation and lactation. Proven fertile male SD rats were used for mating. Male and female offspring were weaned onto standard rat chow on postnatal day (PND) 21 until PND 90. Body weight and fat mass were determined in the offspring. Rats were sacrificed, and blood collected on PND 30 (juvenile) and PND 90 (adulthood) to determine glucose, insulin and leptin levels. Despite no difference in postnatal body weight, male offspring of obese dams had a higher fat mass on both PND 30 and 90 (P<0.05) relative to control offspring. Maternal obesity had no effect on glucose level on PND 30 but induced hyperglycaemia in both male and female offspring on PND 90 (P<0.05) when compared with control offspring. Only male offspring of obese dams exhibited a higher insulin level on both PND 30 and 90 (P<0.05) compared with offspring of control dams. Serum leptin did not vary in either male or female offspring of control and obese dams. The data suggest that maternal obesity may cause age-dependent alterations in glucose homeostasis and may also have a gender-specific effect on adiposity and insulin secretion in the offspring, with males more likely to be predisposed to overweight and diabetes.