Maternal Brown Fat Thermogenesis Programs Glucose Tolerance in the Male Offspring

We tested if minor changes in maternal non-shivering thermogenesis during pregnancy can severely alter the phenotype of the offspring already in the next generation. Therefore, male offspring of dams lacking the uncoupling protein 1 (UCP1-KO) in the thermogenic brown adipose tissue were analysed. Genome-wide expression profiling identified several alterations in the hepatic transcriptomic landscape, demonstrating that even minor differences in the demand for maternal thermogenesis profoundly and permanently alter hepatic gene activity in the adult offspring. Liver gene expression data of offspring from WT and UCP1-KO dams. Six adult male mice per maternal condition (WT and UCP1-KO) were analysed (2 group comparison).