Oxidative stress programming in a rat model of postnatal early overnutrition—role of insulin resistance

EPS Conceição, JG Franco, E Oliveira… - The journal of nutritional …, 2013 - Elsevier
EPS Conceição, JG Franco, E Oliveira, AC Resende, TAS Amaral, N Peixoto-Silva…
The journal of nutritional biochemistry, 2013Elsevier
Postnatal early overfeeding (EO) is related to later development of overweight and other
metabolic disorders. As oxidative stress is implicated in most human diseases, as obesity
and diabetes, we decided to study some parameters related to oxidative stress and insulin
signaling in liver from EO animals in adult life. To induce EO, litter size was reduced to three
pups per litter (SL: small litter) and groups with normal litter size (NL: 10 pups per litter) were
used as control. After weaning, rats had free access to standard diet and water. Body weight …
Postnatal early overfeeding (EO) is related to later development of overweight and other metabolic disorders. As oxidative stress is implicated in most human diseases, as obesity and diabetes, we decided to study some parameters related to oxidative stress and insulin signaling in liver from EO animals in adult life. To induce EO, litter size was reduced to three pups per litter (SL: small litter) and groups with normal litter size (NL:10 pups per litter) were used as control. After weaning, rats had free access to standard diet and water. Body weight and food intake were monitored daily and offspring were killed at 180 days-old. Significant differences had P<.05 or less. As expected, SL rats had hyperphagia, higher body weight and higher visceral fat mass at weaning and adulthood. In liver, postnatal EO programmed for lower catalase (−42%), superoxide dismutase (−45%) and glutathione peroxidase (−65%) activities. The evaluation of liver injury in adult SL group showed lower nitrite content (−10%), higher liver and plasma malondialdehyde content (+25% and 1.1-fold increase, respectively). No changes of total protein bound carbonyl or Cu/Zn superoxide dismutase protein expression in liver were detected between the groups. Regarding insulin signaling pathway in liver, SL offspring showed lower IRβ (−66%), IRS1 (−50%), phospho-IRS1 (−73%), PI3-K (−30%) and Akt1 (−58%). Indeed, morphological analysis showed that SL rats presented focal areas of inflammatory cell infiltrate and lipid drops in their cytoplasm characterizing a microsteatosis. Thus, we evidenced that postnatal EO can program the oxidative stress in liver, maybe contributing for impairment of the insulin signaling.
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