Maternal hypercaloric diet affects factors involved in lipid metabolism and the endogenous cannabinoid systems in the hypothalamus of adult offspring: sex-specific response of astrocytes to palmitic acid and anandamide.

We aimed to investigate whether maternal malnutrition during gestation/lactation induces long-lasting changes on inflammation, lipid metabolism and endocannabinoid signaling in the adult offspring hypothalamus and the role of hypothalamic astrocytes in these changes. We analyzed the effects of a free-choice hypercaloric palatable diet (P) during (pre)gestation, lactation and/or post-weaning on inflammation, lipid metabolism and endogenous cannabinoid signaling in the adult offspring hypothalamus. We also evaluated the response of primary hypothalamic astrocytes to palmitic acid and anandamide. Postnatal exposure to a P diet induced factors involved in hypothalamic inflammation ( and ) and gliosis ( and ) in adult offspring, being more significant in females. In contrast, maternal P diet reduced factors involved in astrogliosis (), fatty acid oxidation () and monounsaturated fatty acid synthesis (). These changes were accompanied by an increase in the expression of the genes for the cannabinoid receptor () and an enzyme involved in endocannabinoid synthesis, in females and a decrease in the endocannabinoid degradation enzyme in males. These changes suggest that the maternal P diet results in sex-specific alterations in hypothalamic endocannabinoid signaling and lipid metabolism. This hypothesis was tested in hypothalamic astrocyte cultures, where palmitic acid (PA) and the polyunsaturated fatty acid N-arachidonoylethanolamine (anandamide or AEA) were found to induce similar changes in the endocannabinoid system (ECS) and lipid metabolism. These results stress the importance of both maternal diet and sex in long term metabolic programming and suggest a possible role of hypothalamic astrocytes in this process.