Feeding a protein-restricted diet during pregnancy induces altered epigenetic regulation of peroxisomal proliferator-activated receptor-α in the heart of the offspring.

Impaired flexibility in the use of substrates for energy production in the heart is implicated in cardiomyopathy. We investigated the effect of maternal protein restriction during pregnancy in rats on the transcription of key genes in cardiac lipid and carbohydrate metabolism in the offspring. Rats were fed protein-sufficient or protein-restricted (PR) diets during pregnancy. Triacylglycerol concentration in adult (day 105) heart was altered by maternal protein intake contingent on post-weaning fat intake and sex. mRNA expression of peroxisomal proliferator-activated receptor (PPAR)-α and carnitine palmitoyltransferase-1 was increased by the maternal PR diet in adult, but not neonatal, offspring. PPARα promoter methylation was lower in adult and neonatal heart from PR offspring. These findings suggest that prenatal nutrition alters the future transcriptional regulation of cardiac energy metabolism in the offspring through changes in epigenetic regulation of specific genes. However, changes in gene functional changes may not be apparent in early life.

Sex, but not maternal protein or folic acid intake, determines the fatty acid composition of hepatic phospholipids, but not of triacylglycerol, in adult rats.

The aim of the study was to investigate whether the protein and folic acid content of the maternal diet and the sex of the offspring alter the polyunsaturated fatty acid content of hepatic phospholipids and triacylglycerol (TAG). Pregnant rats were fed diets containing 18% or 9% protein with either 1 or 5mg/kg folic acid. Maternal diet did not alter hepatic lipid composition in the adult offspring. Data from each maternal dietary group were combined and reanalysed. The proportion of 18:0, 20:4n-6 and 22:6n-3 in liver phospholipids was higher in females than in males, while hepatic TAG composition did not differ between sexes. Delta5 Desaturase expression was higher in females than in males. Neither Delta5 nor Delta6 desaturase expression was related to polyunsaturated fatty acid concentrations. These results suggest that sex differences in liver phospholipid fatty acid composition may reflect primary differences in the specificity of phospholipid biosynthesis.