Maternal obesity induced by diet in rats permanently influences central processes regulating food intake in offspring.

ABSTRACT: Hypothalamic systems which regulate appetite may be permanently modified during early development. We have previously reported hyperphagia and increased adiposity in the adult offspring of rodents fed an obesogenic diet prior to and throughout pregnancy and lactation. We now report that offspring of obese (OffOb) rats display an amplified and prolonged neonatal leptin surge, which is accompanied by elevated leptin mRNA expression in their abdominal white adipose tissue. At postnatal Day 30, before the onset of hyperphagia in these animals, serum leptin is normal, but leptin-induced appetite suppression and phosphorylation of STAT3 in the arcuate nucleus (ARC) are attenuated; the level of AgRP-immunoreactivity in the hypothalamic paraventricular nucleus (PVH), which derives from neurones in

SUBMITTER: Kirk SL 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC2690656 | biostudies-literature | 2009 Jun

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature