Gonzalez-Bulnes Antonio, Torres-Rovira Laura, Astiz Susana, Ovilo Cristina, Sanchez-Sanchez Raul, Gomez-Fidalgo Ernesto, Perez-Solana Mariluz, Martin-Lluch Mercedes, Garcia-Contreras Consuelo, Vazquez-Gomez Marta
INIA, Madrid, Spain.
University of Sassari, Sassari, Italy.
PLoS One. 2015 Nov 6;10(11):e0142158. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0142158. eCollection 2015.
The incidence of obesity and metabolic diseases is dramatically high in rapidly developing countries. Causes have been related to intrinsic ethnic features with development of a thrifty genotype for adapting to food scarcity, prenatal programming by undernutrition, and postnatal exposure to obesogenic lifestyle. Observational studies in humans and experimental studies in animal models evidence that the adaptive responses of the offspring may be modulated by their sex. In the contemporary context of world globalization, the new question arising is the existence and extent of sex-related differences in developmental and metabolic traits in case of mixed-race. Hence, in the current study, using a swine model, we compared male and female fetuses that were crossbred from mothers with thrifty genotype and fathers without thrifty genotype. Female conceptuses evidence stronger protective strategies for their adequate growth and postnatal survival. In brief, both male and female fetuses developed a brain-sparing effect but female fetuses were still able to maintain the development of other viscerae than the brain (mainly liver, intestine and kidneys) at the expense of carcass development. Furthermore, these morphometric differences were reinforced by differences in nutrient availability (glucose and cholesterol) favoring female fetuses with severe developmental predicament. These findings set the basis for further studies aiming to increase the knowledge on the interaction between genetic and environmental factors in the determination of adult phenotype.
在快速发展的国家，肥胖和代谢性疾病的发病率极高。其病因与内在种族特征有关，包括为适应食物短缺而形成的节俭基因型、营养不良导致的产前编程以及产后接触致胖生活方式。对人类的观察性研究和动物模型实验研究表明，后代的适应性反应可能受其性别影响。在当今世界全球化背景下，新出现的问题是在混血情况下发育和代谢特征方面性别差异的存在及程度。因此，在当前研究中，我们使用猪模型，比较了节俭基因型母亲与非节俭基因型父亲杂交产生的雄性和雌性胎儿。雌性胎儿表现出更强的保护策略以实现其充分生长和产后存活。简而言之，雄性和雌性胎儿均出现了脑保护效应，但雌性胎儿仍能以牺牲躯体发育为代价维持除大脑外其他内脏（主要是肝脏、肠道和肾脏）的发育。此外，营养物质（葡萄糖和胆固醇）可用性的差异强化了这些形态测量差异，有利于处于严重发育困境的雌性胎儿。这些发现为进一步研究奠定了基础，旨在增进对遗传和环境因素在决定成年表型过程中相互作用的认识。
