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Impact of perinatal exposure to high-fat diet and stress on responses to nutritional challenges, food-motivated behaviour and mesolimbic dopamine function

International Journal of Obesity volume 41, pages 502–509 (2017)Cite this article

Subjects

Abstract

Background/Objectives:

Energy-dense food exposure and stress during development have been suggested to contribute to obesity and metabolic disorders later in life. Although these factors are frequently associated, the effects of their combination have not yet been investigated. In this study, using an animal model, we examined the long-term impact of maternal high-fat diet (HFD) and early-life stress (ELS) on energy homoeostasis control and food motivation.

Methods:

Body weight growth under HFD, adipose tissue, body weight control in response to fasting and refeeding, food-motivated behaviour and mesolimbic dopamine function were examined in adult male offspring exposed to maternal HFD (during gestation and lactation) and/or ELS (maternal separation 3 h per day from postnatal day 2 to 14).

Results:

Maternal HFD or ELS alone had no significant effect on offspring body weight; however, the combination of these factors exacerbated body weight gain when animals were exposed to HFD after weaning. There are no other significant combinatory effects of these perinatal events. In contrast, independently of the maternal diet, ELS disrupted body weight control during a fasting–refeeding procedure, increased adipose tissue mass and altered lipid metabolism. Finally, maternal HFD and ELS both resulted in exacerbated food-motivated behaviour and blunted dopamine release in the nucleus accumbens during palatable food consumption.

Conclusions:

We report a synergistic effect of perinatal HFD exposure and stress on the susceptibility to gain weight under HFD. However, ELS has a stronger impact than maternal HFD exposure on energy homoeostasis and food motivation in adult offspring. Altogether, our results suggest a programming effect of stress and nutrition supporting the hypothesis of the developmental origin of health and disease.

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Acknowledgements

This study was supported by the University of Bordeaux, Projet Inter-régions Aquitaine Midi Pyrénées, the AlimH department of the Institut National de la Recherche Agronomique (INRA, DIDIT metaprogramme «SWEETLIP‐KID project» ‘Diet impacts and determinants: interactions and transition’) and by funds from Agence Nationale de la Recherche (ANR-12-DSSA-0004). AL and MR were supported by a stipend of the Ministère de l’Enseignement Supérieur et de la Recherche and MRP is a recipient of AgreenSkills postdoctoral fellowship (Ares(2014)4231365). HF was supported by IdEx Bordeaux Université (ANR-10-IDEX-03-02). The funding sources had no involvement in study design, the collection, analysis and interpretation of data, the writing of the report or the decision to submit the article for publication. We acknowledge Pierre Trifilieff, PhD and Alexandre Benani, PhD, for insightful and constructive comments. We thank Agnes Aubert for multiplex immunoassays, Dr Veronique Desmedt Peyrusse for her help with western blot and Mathieu Cadet and Stéphane Lelgouach for animal care.

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Author notes

  1. M Romaní-Pérez and A L Lépinay: These authors contributed equally to this work.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. INRA, Nutrition et Neurobiologie Intégrée, UMR1286, Bordeaux, France

    M Romaní-Pérez, A L Lépinay, L Alonso, M Rincel, L Xia, H Fanet, S Layé, S Vancassel & M Darnaudéry

  2. Université de Bordeaux, Nutrition et Neurobiologie Intégrée, UMR1286, Bordeaux, France

    M Romaní-Pérez, A L Lépinay, L Alonso, M Rincel, L Xia, H Fanet, S Layé, S Vancassel & M Darnaudéry

  3. Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, UMR5287 INCIA, Bordeaux, France

    S Caillé & M Cador

  4. Université de Bordeaux, INCIA, BP31, Bordeaux, France

    S Caillé & M Cador

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  1. M Romaní-Pérez
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Correspondence to M Darnaudéry.

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Romaní-Pérez, M., Lépinay, A., Alonso, L. et al. Impact of perinatal exposure to high-fat diet and stress on responses to nutritional challenges, food-motivated behaviour and mesolimbic dopamine function. Int J Obes 41, 502–509 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1038/ijo.2016.236

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