Maternal high‐fat diet exposure leads to insulin resistance and impacts myogenic and adipogenicgene expression in offspring rats

To obtain information on the molecular mechanisms of insulin resistance (IR) in offspring rats due to maternal high-fat diet exposure, we investigated (i) the consequences of maternal high-fat diet consumption on offspring malprogramming that predisposes the offspring to the onset of IR during adulthood and (ii) the impact of a maternal high-fat diet on myogenic and adipogenic gene expression in muscle. Sprague–Dawley female rats were randomly divided into two groups and fed either a normal chow (NC) or a high-fat diet (HF). After breeding, the pups were divided into four groups: male offspring of HF (MOH), female offspring of HF (FOH), male offspring of NC (MON) and female offspring of NC (FON). The offspring rats were fed NC until 18 weeks after weaning. The body weight, plasma parameters, oral glucose tolerance test (OGTT) and insulin sensitivity index (ISI) of the dam and the offspring rats were measured, and nuclear and mitochondrial morphologies of skeletal muscular cells of the offspring rats were observed. The expression of myogenic and adipogenic marker genes in muscle were measured during the embryonic and foetal periods. The results indicated that maternal high-fat diet exposure led to the emergence of IR in MOH and FOH. The expression of myogenic and adipogenic genes in muscular tissues was seriously disrupted in MOH and FOH, which was revealed firstly in the present study. The consequences of maternal high-fat diet consumption on offspring malprogramming that predisposes the offspring to the onset of insulin resistance during adulthood and the possible mechanism of offspring IR, that is the impact of a maternal high-fat diet on skeletal muscle and adipose tissue gene expression, were investigated.