Abstract
Maternal nutrition during gestation influences the development of the fetus, thereby determining its phenotype, including nutrient metabolism, appetite, and feeding behavior. The control of appetite is a very complex process and can be modulated by orexigenic and anorexigenic mediators such as leptin, which is involved in the regulation of energy homeostasis by controlling food intake and energy expenditure. Leptin transcription and secretion are regulated by numerous factors, nutrition being one of them. The present study was designed to test whether maternal nutrition can permanently affect leptin gene transcription and leptin serum concentration in rat progeny. Moreover, we analyzed whether leptin expression and secretion in response to high-fat postweaning feeding depends on the maternal diet during gestation. Pregnant rats were fed either a normal protein, normal folic acid diet (the AIN-93 diet); a protein-restricted, normal folic acid diet; a protein-restricted, folic acid-supplemented diet; or a normal protein, folic acid-supplemented diet. After weaning, the progeny was fed either the AIN-93 diet or a high-fat diet. Neither maternal nutrition nor the postweaning diet significantly affected Lep transcription. High-fat feeding after weaning was associated with higher serum leptin concentration, but the reaction of an organism to the fat content of the diet was not determined by maternal nutrition during gestation. There was no correlation between Lep mRNA level and serum leptin concentration. Global DNA methylation in adipose tissue was about 30% higher in rats fed postnatally the high-fat diet (P < 0.01). Our study showed that the protein and folic acid content in the maternal diet had no significant programming effect on Lep transcription and serum leptin concentration in the rats.