Increasing vitamin A in post-weaning diets reduces food intake and body weight and modifies gene expression in brains of male rats born to dams fed a high multivitamin diet

High multivitamin gestational diets (HV, 10-fold AIN-93G levels) increase body weight (BW) and food intake (FI) in rat offspring weaned to a recommended multivitamin (RV), but not to a HV diet. We hypothesized that high vitamin A (HA) alone, similar to HV, in post-weaning diets would prevent these effects of the HV maternal diet consistent with gene expression in FI and reward pathways. Male offspring from dams fed HV diets were weaned to a high vitamin A (HA, 10-fold AIN-93G levels), HV or RV diet for 29 weeks. BW, FI, expression of genes involved in regulation of FI and reward and global and gene-specific DNA methylation of pro-opiomelanocortin (POMC) in the hypothalamus were measured. Both HV and HA diets slowed post-weaning weight gain and modified gene expression in offspring compared to offspring fed an RV post-weaning diet. Hypothalamic POMC expression in HA offspring was not different from either HV or RV, and dopamine receptor 1 was 30% (P