Transcriptomics of rat born to dams fed a diet deficient in methyl group donors

It is clearly established that the maternal diet during pregnancy can induce physiological and metabolic adaptations in the developing fetus which determine its susceptibility later in life to develop diabetes, obesity... The molecular and genomic mechanisms underlying the programming of the metabolic syndrome remain largely unknown but may involve resetting of epigenetic marks and fetal gene expression. We analyzed the profile of the liver transcriptome in 21-day-old rats born to mothers fed with a standard diet or a diet lacking methyl donor nutrients (Vitamin B12 and folates) during gestation and lactation. From a total of 44,000 probes for 26,456 genes, we found two gene clusters whose expression levels had statistically significant differences between control and deficient rats: 3,269 up-regulated and 2,841 down-regulated genes. Bioinformatics analysis revealed that these genes are mainly involved in glucose and lipid metabolism, nervous system, coagulation, endoplasmic reticulum (ER) stress and mitochondrial function.