The impact of prenatal circadian rhythm disruption on pregnancy outcomes and long-term metabolic health of mice progeny.

ABSTRACTAnimal studies demonstrate that circadian rhythm disruption during pregnancy can be deleterious to reproductive capacity and the long-term health of the progeny. Our previous studies in rats have shown that exposure of pregnant dams to an environment that significantly disrupts maternal circadian rhythms programs increased adiposity and poor glucose metabolism in offspring. In this study, we used mice with a ClockΔ19 mutation to determine whether foetal development within a genetically disrupted circadian environment affects pregnancy outcomes and alters the metabolic health of offspring. Ten female ClockΔ19+MEL mutant mice were mated with 10 wildtype males, and 10 wildtype females were mated with 10 ClockΔ19+MEL mutant males. While genetically identical, the heterozygote foetuses were exposed to either a normal (wildtype dams) or disrupted (ClockΔ19+MEL mutant dams) circadian environment during gestation. Pregnancy outcomes including time to mate, gestation length, litter size and birth weight we...