Normal-Weight Offspring of Parents With Diet-Induced Obesity Display Altered Gene Expression Profiles

Area of Science:

• Nutritional Science
• Genetics
• Metabolic Health

Background:

• Western diets are linked to obesity.
• The impact of parental diet on offspring obesity risk is not fully understood.
• This study investigates the influence of parental Western diet on male offspring obesity in mice.

Purpose of the Study:

• To examine how parental Western diets affect male offspring obesity risk.
• To determine if early exposure to obesogenic diets influences long-term weight gain in offspring.
• To analyze gene expression changes in male offspring related to parental diet.

Main Methods:

• Mice were fed either a Western diet (WD) or control diet (CD) from 6 to 14 weeks of age.
• Adult mice were mated to create four breeding groups (CD/CD, CD/WD, WD/CD, WD/WD).
• Weight gain trajectories and gene expression in male offspring were analyzed using statistical modeling and q-mode PCA.

Main Results:

• Offspring weight gain was primarily influenced by sex and litter size, not parental diet.
• Significant gene expression differences were observed between offspring from WD/WD and CD/CD parents.
• These gene expression changes involved pathways related to inflammation, stress response, and obesity.

Conclusions:

• While parental diet did not directly affect offspring weight, it influenced gene expression profiles.
• Dual-parental exposure to obesogenic diets may alter metabolic disease risk in male offspring, even at normal weights.