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Updated: Aug 1, 2025
Author Spotlight: Studying the Impact of Maternal Dietary Deficiencies on Long-Term Offspring Health Outcomes
Published on: June 28, 2024
Maternal High-Fat Diet Consumption in Sprague Dawley Rats Compromised the Availability and Altered the Tissue
1Department of Human Nutrition, University of Alabama, Tuscaloosa, AL 35487, USA.
Insights
Maternal high-fat diet (HFD) consumption reduces lutein availability in neonatal offspring. This impacts lutein distribution in infant tissues crucial for development, affecting the eye and brain.
Area of Science:
- Nutrition Science
- Developmental Biology
- Carotenoid Research
Background:
- Lutein is vital for infant visual and cognitive development.
- High adiposity may influence lutein's tissue distribution due to its lipophilic nature.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate the effects of maternal high-fat diet (HFD) on neonatal lutein status.
- To determine how maternal HFD impacts lutein levels and distribution in offspring tissues.
Main Methods:
- Female Sprague Dawley rats were fed normal-fat diet (NFD) or HFD before and during gestation/lactation.
- Lutein concentrations were measured in maternal milk, liver, eye, brain, and adipose tissues of pups at various postnatal days (P2, P6, P11, P20).
Main Results:
- Maternal HFD led to lower lutein concentrations in milk and liver of pups.
- Neonatal offspring from HFD dams showed reduced lutein in the eye, brain, and brown adipose tissue at P11.
- Visceral white adipose tissue exhibited higher lutein concentration and mass in HFD pups.
Conclusions:
- Maternal HFD consumption compromises lutein availability in neonatal offspring.
- Altered lutein distribution, with accumulation in visceral fat, occurs in offspring exposed to maternal HFD.
- These findings highlight the impact of maternal diet on essential nutrient status for infant development.
Abstract:
Lutein, the most abundant carotenoid in the infant eye and brain, is critical for their visual and cognitive development. Due to its lipophilic nature, a high adiposity may affect the tissue distribution of lutein. The aim of the study was to determine the impacts of a maternal high-fat diet (HFD) consumption on the status of lutein in the neonatal offspring. Female Sprague Dawley rats (n = 6) were fed a normal fat diet (NFD) or a HFD for 8 weeks before mating, and they were switched to an NFD or an HFD containing the same concentration of lutein ester during gestation and lactation. Rat pups (n = 7/group/time) were euthanized on postnatal day 2 (P2), P6, P11, and P20 for measuring tissue lutein concentrations. No significant difference in maternal lutein intake was found between the two groups. At both P6 and P11, a significantly lower lutein concentration was noted in the milk samples separated from the stomach of HFD pups than the concentration in the samples from the NFD pups; the HFD group showed a significantly lower lutein concentration in the liver. At P11, the HFD pups exhibited a significantly lower lutein concentration in the eye, brain, and brown adipose tissue accompanied with a significantly higher lutein concentration and mass in the visceral white adipose tissue. The study was the first to provide evidence that maternal HFD consumption resulted in a compromised availability and altered distribution of lutein in the neonatal offspring.
