Effects of pregnancy on obesity-induced inflammation in a mouse model of fetal programming

• Published in: International Journal of Obesity Vol. 38; no. 10; pp. 1282 - 1289
• Main Authors: Ingvorsen, C, Thysen, A H, Fernandez-Twinn, D, Nordby, P, Nielsen, K F, Ozanne, S E, Brix, S, Hellgren, L I
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: London Nature Publishing Group UK 01-10-2014; Nature Publishing Group
• Subjects: 631/250/256; 692/699/2743/393; 692/700/2814; Adipose tissue; Animals; Biological and medical sciences; Biology; Blood; Body fat; Body weight; Care and treatment; Complications and side effects; Development and progression; Diet; Disease Models, Animal; Epidemiology; Female; Females; Fetal Development - immunology; Fetuses; Flow Cytometry; Gestation; Health aspects; Health Promotion and Disease Prevention; Hypotheses; Immunohistochemistry; Infiltration; Inflammation; Inflammation - immunology; Inflammation - pathology; Insulin; Internal Medicine; Liver; Liver - metabolism; Macrophages; Medical sciences; Medicine; Medicine & Public Health; Metabolic Diseases; Metabolic Syndrome - immunology; Metabolic Syndrome - pathology; Metabolism; Mice; Mice, Inbred C57BL; Monocytes; Neutrophils; Obesity; Obesity - immunology; Obesity - pathology; Offspring; pediatric-original-article; Placenta; Pregnancy; Pregnant women; Prenatal Exposure Delayed Effects - immunology; Prenatal Exposure Delayed Effects - pathology; Public Health; Tumor necrosis factor-TNF; Weight Gain - immunology; United Kingdom > UK; Denmark; macrophage; fetal programming; inflammation; pregnancy; Human; Animal model; Obesity; Nutrition; Theory; Rodentia; Nutrition disorder; Metabolic diseases; Inflammation; Fetal programming; Pregnancy; Vertebrata; Chronic; Mammalia; Mouse; Female; Fetus; Woman; Nutritional status; Macrophage
• ISSN: 0307-0565; 1476-5497
• DOI: 10.1038/ijo.2014.69

Objective:
Maternal obesity is associated with increased risk of metabolic dysfunction in the offspring. It is not clear whether it is the metabolic changes or chronic low-grade inflammation in the obese state that causes this metabolic programming. We therefore investigated whether low-grade inflammation was present in obese dams compared with controls dams at gestation day 18 (GD18).
Methods:
Female mice were fed either a standard chow diet or a highly palatable obesogenic diet for 6 weeks before conception. Mice were either kileed before mating (
n
=12 in each group) or on GD18 (
n
=8 in each group). Blood and tissues were collected for analysis.
Results:
The obesogenic diet increased body weight and decreased insulin sensitivity before conception, while there was no difference between the groups at GD18. Local inflammation was assayed by macrophage count in adipose tissue (AT) and liver. Macrophage count in the AT was increased significantly by the obesogenic diet, and the hepatic count also showed a tendency to increased macrophage infiltration before gestation. This was further supported by a decreased population of monocytes in the blood of the obese animals, which suggested that monocytes are being recruited from the blood to the liver and AT in the obese animals. Gestation reversed macrophage infiltration, such that obese dams showed a lower AT macrophage count at the end of gestation compared with pre-pregnancy obese mice, and there were no longer a tendency toward increased hepatic macrophage count. Placental macrophage count was also similar in the two groups.
Conclusion:
At GD18, obese dams were found to have similar macrophage infiltration in placenta, AT and liver as lean dams, despite an incipient infiltration before gestation. Thus, the obesity-induced inflammation was reversed during gestation.