MFM Fellowship Training Program, Division of Maternal Fetal Medicine, Department of Obstetrics & Gynecology, The Pennsylvania State University College of Medicine, Hershey, PA 17033, USA.
Department of Neural and Behavioral Sciences, The Pennsylvania State University College of Medicine, Hershey, PA 17033, USA.
Nutrients. 2020 Nov 20;12(11):3553. doi: 10.3390/nu12113553.
Maternal intake of high fat diet (HFD) increases risk for obesity and metabolic disorders in offspring. Developmental programming of taste preference is a potential mechanism by which this occurs. Whether maternal HFD during pregnancy, lactation, or both, imposes greater risks for altered taste preferences in adult offspring remains a question, and in turn, was investigated in the present study. Four groups of offspring were generated based on maternal HFD access: (1) HFD during pregnancy and lactation (HFD); (2) HFD during pregnancy (HFD-pregnancy); (3) HFD during lactation (HFD-lactation); and (4) normal diet (ND) during pregnancy and lactation (ND). Adult offspring 70 days of age underwent sensory and motivational taste preference testing with various concentrations of sucrose and Intralipid solutions using brief-access automated gustometers (Davis-rigs) and 24 h two-bottle choice tests, respectively. To control for post-gestational diet effects, offspring in all experimental groups were weaned on ND, and did not differ in body weight or glucose tolerance at the time of testing. Offspring exposed to maternal HFD showed increased sensory taste responses for 0.3, 0.6, 1.2 M sucrose solutions in HFD and 0.6 M in HFD-pregnancy groups, compared to animals exposed to ND. Similar effects were noted for lower concentrations of Intralipid in HFD (0.05, 0.10%) and HFD-pregnancy (0.05, 0.10, 0.5%) groups. The HFD-lactation group showed an opposite, diminished responsiveness for sucrose at the highest concentrations (0.9, 1.2, 1.5 M), but not for Intralipid, compared to ND animals. Extended-access two-bottle tests did not reveal major difference across the groups. Our study shows that maternal HFD during pregnancy and lactation has markedly different effects on preferences for palatable sweet and fatty solutions in adult offspring and suggests that such developmental programing may primarily affect gustatory mechanisms. Future studies are warranted for determining the impact of taste changes on development of obesity and metabolic disorders in a "real" food environment with food choices available, as well as to identify specific underlying mechanisms.
母体高脂肪饮食（HFD）的摄入会增加后代肥胖和代谢紊乱的风险。味觉偏好的发育编程是发生这种情况的潜在机制。母体在怀孕期间、哺乳期或两者都摄入 HFD 是否会对成年后代的味觉偏好产生更大的改变仍然是一个问题，本研究对此进行了调查。根据母体 HFD 的摄入情况，生成了四组后代：（1）怀孕期间和哺乳期均摄入 HFD（HFD）；（2）仅怀孕期间摄入 HFD（HFD-怀孕）；（3）仅哺乳期摄入 HFD（HFD-哺乳）；（4）怀孕期间和哺乳期均摄入正常饮食（ND）。70 天大的成年后代使用自动味觉计（Davis-rigs）进行了短暂访问的感官和动机味觉偏好测试，测试了不同浓度的蔗糖和 Intralipid 溶液；并分别进行了 24 小时两瓶选择测试。为了控制出生后饮食的影响，所有实验组的后代均在 ND 上断奶，在测试时体重或葡萄糖耐量没有差异。与接受 ND 的动物相比，暴露于母体 HFD 的后代对 HFD 和 HFD-怀孕组中 0.3、0.6、1.2 M 蔗糖溶液以及 HFD 组中 0.6 M 的蔗糖溶液的感官味觉反应增加。在 HFD（0.05、0.10%）和 HFD-怀孕（0.05、0.10、0.5%）组中，Intralipid 的较低浓度也观察到了类似的效果。HFD-哺乳组对最高浓度（0.9、1.2、1.5 M）的蔗糖表现出相反的、降低的反应，但对 Intralipid 则没有，与 ND 动物相比。扩展访问两瓶测试并未显示出各组之间的主要差异。我们的研究表明，母体在怀孕期间和哺乳期摄入 HFD 对成年后代对美味甜食和高脂肪溶液的偏好有明显不同的影响，并表明这种发育编程可能主要影响味觉机制。未来的研究需要确定在有食物选择的“真实”食物环境中，味觉变化对肥胖和代谢紊乱发展的影响，以及确定具体的潜在机制。
