Vitamin A Supplementation during Suckling and Postweaning Periods Attenuates the Adverse Metabolic Effects of Maternal High-Fat Diet Consumption in Sprague-Dawley Rats
Libo Tan, Yanqi Zhang, Kristi Crowe‐White, Katelyn Senkus, Maddy E Erwin, Hui Wang
Abstract
BACKGROUND: Vitamin A (VA) has been demonstrated to be a regulator of adipose tissue (AT) development in adult obese models. However, little is known about the effect of VA on obesity-associated developmental and metabolic conditions in early life. OBJECTIVES: We aimed to assess the effects of dietary VA supplementation during suckling and postweaning periods on the adiposity and metabolic health of neonatal and weanling rats from mothers consuming a high-fat diet (HFD). METHODS: = 4 or 3/group) were killed. Body weight (BW), visceral white AT (WAT) mass, brown AT (BAT) mass, uncoupling protein 1 mRNA expression in BAT, serum glucose, lipids, adipokines, and inflammatory biomarkers, as well as serum and AT redox status were assessed. RESULTS: Rat pups in the HFD group exhibited significantly higher BW, WAT mass, and serum glucose and leptin but reduced BAT mass compared with the NFD group. Without affecting the dietary intake, supplementing the HFD with VA significantly reduced the BW and WAT mass of pups but increased the BAT mass, significantly lowered the systemic and WAT oxidative stress, and modulated serum adipokines and lipids to some extent. CONCLUSIONS: VA supplementation during suckling and postweaning periods attenuated metabolic perturbations caused by excessive fat intake. Supplementing maternal or infant obesogenic diets with VA or establishing a higher RDA of VA for specific populations should be studied further for managing overweight/obesity in early life.