[Effects of abnormal nutritional supply during pregnancy on adult hormone resistance in rats].

OBJECTIVE

To discuss the effects of abnormal nutritional supply during pregnancy on the adult insulin and leptin resistance in rats.

METHODS

We established the pregnant rat models given either low protein or high nutrition diet, and normal diet group served as control. There were 12 pregnant rats in each group. After vaginal delivery, the pups birth weight were measured. The randomly selected small for gestational age (SGA) from low protein diet group, large for gestational age (LGA) pups from high nutrition diet group and normal birth weight pups from control group were studied at both 4 weeks and 12 weeks after being born. Each group contained 36 rats. The insulin and leptin level were measured by the method of ELISA, and insulin sensitive index were calculated respectively.

RESULTS

The pups of mothers served with low protein showed obviously lower birth weight than those mothers with normal diet (P < 0.01), 69% pups were SGA. While pups of mothers with high nutrition diet showed obviously higher birth weight than those mothers with normal diet (P < 0.01), 38% were LGA. The body weight of rats in SGA group was similar with those in control group at 4-week-age (P > 0.05), while the weight of fat around kidney, the ratio of fat and body weight (FW/BW) were (0.36 +/- 0.14) g, 6.5 +/- 0.3, which were higher than those of control (0.19 +/- 0.13) g, 3.4 +/- 0.3 (P < 0.01, P < 0.05). FW/BW in LGA group showed no obvious difference from that of control. At 12-week-age, the body weight of SGA was (222 +/- 19) g, that of LGA was (257 +/- 24) g, both of them significantly higher than that of control (215 +/- 25) g (P < 0.05, P < 0.01). FW/BW in SGA was 10.5 +/- 5.1, in LGA it was 11.8 +/- 3.6, which were significantly higher than that of control, 7.2 +/- 3.6 (P < 0.01). The higher insulin (5.5 +/- 0.9) microg/L, leptin (6.1 +/- 0.7) microg/L level and lower ISI (3.4 +/- 0.3) were obvious at 4-week-age (all P < 0.05) in SGA group but not in LGA group. At 12-week-age, all of them in the two groups were significantly different compared with those in control (all P < 0.01).

CONCLUSIONS

Abnormal nutritional supply during pregnancy can lead to abnormal birth weight. Both low birth weight and high birth weight pups showed obesity with different characteristics and insulin, leptin resistance during adult period.