Maternal Western-style diet alters the transcriptome of chemically induced mammary tumors in female offspring rats

Some previous experimental studies have shown that early in life intake of high-fat or Western-style diets did alter the development of mammary cancer in adulthood female rats. Thus, the present study investigated the distinct gene expression patterns of chemically induced mammary tumors derived from female offspring whose dams intake control diet (CD) or Western-style diet (WD). During gestational days (GD) 12-21 and post-natal days (PND) 1-21, pregnant Sprague-Dawley (SD) rats were fed a CD diet or WD (high-fat and low-fiber and oligoelements) diet. On postnatal day (PND) 21, the female offspring received a single dose of carcinogen N-Methyl-N-Nitrosourea (MNU, 50 mg/kg) and CD diet for 12 weeks. Latency, incidence and tumor burden were registered. Mammary tumors samples were collected and histopathology and gene expression analysis were performed.