Maternal Na+ intake induces renal function injury in rats prevented by a short-term angiotensin converting enzyme inhibitor.

The Na+ -ATPase, a secondary pump in the proximal tubule, is only weakly responsive to angiotensin II in adult offspring exposed perinatally to high Na+ intake. We have investigated whether the offspring from mothers given 0.3 mol/L NaCl show an ineffective angiotensin II action to increase in blood pressure. It was hypothesized that functional alterations at adult life are associated with the number of angiotensin II-positive cells in the developing kidney, with increased oxidative stress in maternal/foetal organs, or with morphometrical changes in placentas. Wistar female rats were maintained on 0.3 mol/L NaCl in their drinking water from 20 days before conception until weaning. After weaning, some of the male offspring were treated with enalapril for 21 days. Glomerular filtration rate was recorded up to 210 days of age, when mean arterial pressure was measured after infusion of angiotensin II. To investigate the placenta and foetal kidneys, mothers on tap water or NaCl were also treated with alpha-tocopherol, pregnancy being interrupted on the 20th day. There were no changes in the number of cells positive for angiotensin II in the foetal kidney and unchanged lipid peroxidation in the placenta of offspring exposed to NaCl, but the intermediate trophoblast area in the junctional zone was increased, possibly reducing maternal-foetal exchange. Glomerular filtration rate was reduced and there was an attenuated effect of angiotensin II on elevation of blood pressure, which could be mediated by an elevated angiotensin II during early life, once these disturbances had been prevented by early and short-term treatment with enalapril.

The supramolecular structure of milk fat influences plasma triacylglycerols and fatty acid profile in the rat.

BACKGROUND: The digestion fate of milk fat depending on its supramolecular structure for a given dairy product composition has rarely been studied. AIM OF THE STUDY: To highlight differences of lipid digestion, we measured (i) the plasma triacylglycerol and cholesterol concentrations and (ii) the total plasma fatty acid profile of fasted rats force-fed with different dairy preparations; the three creams and the unemulsified preparation had a similar composition with different and controlled fat suprastructures. METHODS: All preparations, manufactured in the laboratory from a given milk batch, contained 205 +/- 3 g . kg(-1) fat that was either fed (i) unemulsified consecutively to the skim milk phase, or as a cream with the following fat globule structures: (ii) native milk fat globules of approximately 4 microm covered with the native milk fat globule membrane (MFGM), (iii) small native milk fat globules of approximately 2 microm selected from the latter by microfiltration and covered by the MFGM, or (iv) fine homogenized fat droplets of approximately 1 microm covered mainly with caseins. RESULTS: The plasma triacylglycerol appearance was delayed for the creams compared with the rapid onset for the unemulsified preparation. At 90 and 180 min after feeding, the plasma triacylglycerol enrichment was significantly lower for the homogenized cream than for the unemulsified preparation. At 120 min after feeding, triacylglycerol enrichment was significantly lower for each cream than for the unemulsified preparation. At 180 min after feeding, the plasma relative enrichment in C12, C14, C15, C16 and C18:1 n-9 fatty acids was significantly lower for the homogenized cream than for unemulsified fat and regular cream. CONCLUSIONS: Global lipid digestion based on plasma triacylglycerol enrichment and relative enrichments in some fatty acids was decreased with small homogenized milk fat droplets compared to unemulsified milk fat. These data show that dairy products with the same composition but varying in fat supramolecular structure result in different kinetics of lipid digestion, which could be of health concern.