High-fat diet during lactation, as opposed to during adolescence or gestation, programs cardiometabolic and autonomic dysfunctions in adult offspring.

The Developmental Origins of Health and Disease (DOHaD) concept has been established for three decades. Many studies have shown that, besides pregnancy, other plastic phases (mainly preconception, lactation, and infancy-adolescence) are also sensitive to environmental changes, including nutritional conditions, that can program health or disease later in life. This study compared the susceptibility of the gestation, lactation and adolescence to a high-fat diet (HFD) intervention to program rats into autonomic nervous system imbalance and cardiometabolic dysfunction in adulthood.

Hypertension induced by peri-pubertal protein restriction depends on renin-angiotensin system dysfunction in adult male rats.

Background And Aims: Hypertension depends on renin-angiotensin system dysfunction; however, little is known about its implications in the outcomes of neurogenic hypertension induced by peri-pubertal insults. This study aimed to evaluate whether hypertension induced by a peri-pubertal low-protein diet is related to renin-angiotensin system dysfunction in adult male Wistar rats.

Methods And Results: Thirty-day-old male Wistar rats were fed a low-protein diet (4 % casein) for 30 days and subsequently fed a 20.

Epigenetic programming for obesity and noncommunicable disease: From womb to tomb.

Several epidemiological, clinical and experimental studies in recent decades have shown the relationship between exposure to stressors during development and health outcomes later in life. The characterization of these susceptible phases, such as preconception, gestation, lactation and adolescence, and the understanding of factors that influence the risk of an adult individual for developing obesity, metabolic and cardiovascular diseases, is the focus of the DOHaD (Developmental Origins of Health and Disease) research line. In this sense, advancements in molecular biology techniques have contributed significantly to the understanding of the mechanisms underlying the observed phenotypes, their morphological and physiological alterations, having as a main driving factor the epigenetic modifications and their consequent modulation of gene expression.

Precocious evaluation of cardiovascular risk and its correlation with perinatal condition.

The cardiovascular disease is the main cause of worldwide death. This profile is potentialized by the increased severity of infections in people with obesity, type 2 diabetes and hypertension. Children and adolescents are target groups for the prevention of non-communicable diseases.

Protein Restriction in the Peri-Pubertal Period Induces Autonomic Dysfunction and Cardiac and Vascular Structural Changes in Adult Rats.

Perturbations to nutrition during critical periods are associated with changes in embryonic, fetal or postnatal developmental patterns that may render the offspring more likely to develop cardiovascular disease in later life. The aim of this study was to evaluate whether autonomic nervous system imbalance underpins in the long-term hypertension induced by dietary protein restriction during peri-pubertal period. Male Wistar rats were assigned to groups fed with a low protein (4% protein, LP) or control diet (20.

Lean in one way, in obesity another: effects of moderate exercise in brown adipose tissue of early overfed male Wistar rats.

Background: Early postnatal overfeeding (PO) induces long-term overweight and reduces brown adipose tissue (BAT) thermogenesis. Exercise has been suggested as a possible intervention to increase BAT function. In this study, we investigated chronical effects of moderate-intensity exercise in BAT function in postnatal overfed male Wistar rats METHODS: Litters' delivery was on postnatal-day 0 - PN0.