Department of Health and Nutrition Sciences, Brooklyn College of the City University of New York, Brooklyn, NY 11210, USA.
Division of Nutritional Sciences, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY 14853, USA.
Nutrients. 2017 Aug 18;9(8):899. doi: 10.3390/nu9080899.
Maternal obesity increases fetal adiposity which may adversely affect metabolic health of the offspring. Choline regulates lipid metabolism and thus may influence adiposity. This study investigates the effect of maternal choline supplementation on fetal adiposity in a mouse model of maternal obesity. C57BL/6J mice were fed either a high-fat (HF) diet or a control (NF) diet and received either 25 mM choline supplemented (CS) or control untreated (CO) drinking water for 6 weeks before timed-mating and throughout gestation. At embryonic day 17.5, HF feeding led to higher ( < 0.05) percent total body fat in fetuses from the HFCO group, while the choline supplemented HFCS group did not show significant difference versus the NFCO group. Similarly, HF feeding led to higher ( < 0.05) hepatic triglyceride accumulation in the HFCO but not the HFCS fetuses. mRNA levels of lipogenic genes such as , , and , as well as the transcription factor that favors lipogenesis were downregulated ( < 0.05) by maternal choline supplementation in the HFCS group, which may serve as a mechanism to reduce fat accumulation in the fetal liver during maternal HF feeding. In summary, maternal choline supplementation improves indices of fetal adiposity in obese dams at late gestation.
母体肥胖会增加胎儿脂肪含量，从而可能对后代的代谢健康产生不利影响。胆碱能调节脂质代谢，从而可能影响脂肪含量。本研究旨在通过肥胖母体的小鼠模型，探究母体胆碱补充对胎儿脂肪含量的影响。C57BL/6J 小鼠在定时交配前和整个妊娠期分别喂食高脂肪（HF）饮食或对照（NF）饮食，并接受 25 mM 胆碱补充（CS）或对照未处理（CO）饮用水。在胚胎第 17.5 天，HF 喂养导致 HFCO 组胎儿的总身体脂肪百分比更高（<0.05），而 HFCS 组与 NFCO 组相比没有显著差异。同样，HF 喂养导致 HFCO 组胎儿的肝甘油三酯积累更高（<0.05），但 HFCS 组则没有。在 HFCS 组中，母源性胆碱补充降低了脂肪生成基因（如、和）和促进脂肪生成的转录因子（如）的 mRNA 水平（<0.05），这可能是在母体 HF 喂养期间减少胎儿肝脏脂肪积累的一种机制。总之，母体胆碱补充可改善肥胖母体妊娠晚期胎儿肥胖的指标。
