Maternal under-nutrition during pregnancy alters the molecular response to over-nutrition in multiple tissues in juvenile offspring.

This study examined gene expression in liver, fat and skeletal muscle of juvenile baboons to determine the effect of maternal under-nutrition (MUN; dams were fed a diet with 30% reduction in nutrients) during pregnancy on response to consumption of a high-fat, high-carbohydrate, high-salt and sugar drink (HFCS) diet for 7 weeks later in development of MUN offspring. After dietary challenge, gene expression in the liver, fat and skeletal muscle of MUN juvenile baboons was compared with that of control juvenile baboons (CON; dams were fed a control diet). Results showed that the number of differentially expressed genes and enriched pathways in these tissues differed between MUN and CON juvenile baboons. Offspring from mothers fed the CON diet ad libitum were in the CON group, and those from mothers fed a nutrient reduced diet were in the MUN group. After weaning, offspring consumed the chow diet until 4.5 years of age when they were challenged with the HFCS diet for 7 weeks or remained on the chow diet. Gene expression in liver, fat and skeletal muscle of animals was measured using gene array from Illumina (HumanHT-12 v4 Expression BeadChips).