Pregnancy in obese mice protects selectively against visceral adiposity and is associated with increased adipocyte estrogen signalling.

ABSTRACT: Maternal obesity is linked with increased adverse pregnancy outcomes for both mother and child. The metabolic impact of excessive fat within the context of pregnancy is not fully understood. We used a mouse model of high fat (HF) feeding to induce maternal obesity to identify adipose tissue-mediated mechanisms driving metabolic dysfunction in pregnant and non-pregnant obese mice. As expected, chronic HF-feeding for 12 weeks preceding pregnancy increased peripheral (subcutaneous) and visceral (mesenteric) fat mass. However, unexpectedly at late gestation (E18.5) HF-fed mice exhibited a remarkable normalization of visceral but not peripheral adiposity, with a 53% reduction in non-pregnant visceral fat mass expressed as a proportion of body weight (P<0.001). In contrast, in control animals, p

SUBMITTER: Pedroni SM 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3986097 | biostudies-literature | 2014

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature