Maternal Overfeeding during Lactation Impairs the Metabolic Response to Fed/Fasting Changing Conditions in the Postweaning Offspring

Scope The metabolic response to fed/fasting changing conditions at early age in rats with different predisposition to obesity‐related alterations due to maternal conditions during the perinatal period is studied. Methods and results Offspring of dams made obese by a cafeteria diet and moved to a normal‐fat diet 1 month before gestation (O‐PCaf, with an apparently normal phenotype in adulthood), and offspring of cafeteria diet‐fed dams during lactation (O‐CAF, with a thin‐outside‐fat inside phenotype), together with the offspring of control dams (O‐C), are studied at early age. Fasting is associated with downregulation of lipogenesis‐related genes in liver and rpWAT, and upregulation of genes related to lipolysis and fatty acid uptake in rpWAT in O‐C animals. The response to fed/fasting conditions is impaired in O‐CAF, but not in O‐PCaf animals. The fasting‐induced increase in the expression of Prkaa1 in liver and rpWAT, and the corresponding increase of hepatic AMPKα1 protein levels of O‐C animals are attenuated in O‐CAF rats, while no alterations are found in O‐PCaf animals versus controls. Conclusion Maternal intake of a cafeteria diet during lactation causes early alterations in the offspring, impairing their metabolic flexibility in response to fed/fasting changing conditions, which may contribute to hindering energy homeostasis maintenance. Maternal intake of a cafeteria diet during lactation, rather than maternal obesity itself, impairs the response to fed/fasting, changing conditions in the offspring.