Gestational Low-Protein Diet Impairs Mitochondrial Function and Skeletal Muscle Development by Inducing Immune Responses in Male Offspring

To elucidate the potential underlying mechanisms of protein restriction during gestation, we compared the transcriptomic profiles of GAS muscles from 21-day-old offspring of mothers on a low-protein diet during gestation with those of a control group using RNA-seq analysis. Overall design: Two weeks prior to mating, nulliparous 8-weeks old female mice were fed either a normal-protein diet (N, 20% crude protein; code 824226, Special Diet Services, UK) or a low-protein diet (L, 8% crude protein; code 824248, Special Diet Services, UK) ad-libitum. Male mice of the same age, which had been fed on a normal-protein diet, were used for mating. The male pups born from both groups were used for this study. New-born offspring were cross-fostered to dams fed normal-protein diet within 24 hours of birth, creating Normal-Normal (NN) and Low-Normal (LN) groups. NN and LN mice were kept on a normal-protein diet after weaning (day 21), generating Normal-Normal-Normal (NNN) and Low-Normal-Normal (LNN) groups of mice respectively.