AsianScientist (Feb. 14, 2012) – Exercise is the key to reversing the adverse metabolic effects passed on to offspring by their overweight mothers, says a new study from the University of New South Wales (UNSW).
Being an obese mother can have a powerful impact on the next generation, altering central appetite circuits and contributing to increased fat deposits, glucose intolerance, and metabolic disease in offspring.
However, a UNSW study on rodents found exercise was able to dramatically improve these detrimental impacts, with the reversal most pronounced in juveniles who both exercised and consumed a low-fat diet.
The findings, published in the journal, Nutrition, Metabolism and Cardiovascular Disease, are particularly significant given the global obesity epidemic and the increasing number of overweight women entering pregnancy, said study leader Professor Morris, from UNSW’s School of Medical Sciences.
In the study, offspring from obese female rats were 12 percent heavier three weeks after birth than the control offspring. They also recorded higher fat deposits, plasma lipids, blood pressure, and induced glucose intolerance. When the pups also ate a high-fat diet, the weight gap increased to 37 percent.
However, when the pups born to obese mothers were allowed to exercise, their fat mass, plasma lipids, blood pressure and insulin resistance were reduced. Offspring who ate healthy food as well as engaged in exercise reached metabolic levels similar to control rats.
Morris said eating healthy food alone was not enough to reverse the negative metabolic traits.
“Eating well is obviously a good thing, but exercise is the key. Our previous studies showed that offspring of obese mothers who ate well but were sedentary weren’t able to reverse the metabolic risk factors. It was only in this study when exercise was introduced that improvement was recorded,” Morris said.
Shared metabolic similarities between humans and rodents suggested the results could be replicated in people, Morris said.
The article can be found at: Rajia S et al. (2012) Voluntary post weaning exercise restores metabolic homeostasis in offspring of obese rats.
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Source: UNSW.
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