We aimed to establish a mouse model of metabolic programming focusing on the sex-specific effects of a maternal low-protein diet during gestation on glucose and lipid metabolism in the adult offspring.
Pregnant C57BL/6 mice received a control or a low-protein diet (18%vs 9%casein) throughout gestation. Male and female offspring received a low-fat or a high-fat diet from 6 to 22 weeks of age.
Maternal low-protein diet during gestation led to deteriorated insulin sensitivity on high-fat feeding in female offspring, as determined by biochemical and microarray analyses. Female offspring of control diet-fed dams were relatively resistant to high-fat diet-induced metabolic dysregulation. In contrast, maternal low-protein diet did not specifically affect the metabolic parameters addressed in male offspring. In males, the high-fat diet led to insulin insensitivity regardless of the diet of the dam.
Our findings show that fetal malnutrition has a limited impact on male mouse offspring, yet it does influence the metabolic response to a high-fat diet in females. These findings may have implications for future early diagnostics in metabolic syndrome and for the development of sex-specific treatment regimens.