Abstract
Neonatal manipulations (10 min of maternal separation plus s.c. sham injection, daily for the first 21 d of life) determine overweight in male adult mice. In this work, we investigated the mechanisms underlying mild obesity and the alteration of caloric balance. Neonatally manipulated mice become overweight after onset of maturity, showing increased fat tissue and hypertrophic epididymal adipocytes. Increase in body weight occurs in the presence of a small increase in daily food intake (significant only in the adult period) and the absence of a decrease in spontaneous locomotor activity, while the calculated caloric efficiency is higher in manipulated mice, especially in adulthood. Fasting adult animals show hyperglycemia, hyperinsulinemia, hypertriglyceridemia, hypercholesterolemia, and hyperleptinemia. Soon after weaning and in the adulthood, plasma corticosterone and adrenocorticotropin (ACTH) are also significantly increased. Thus, neonatal manipulations in nongenetically susceptible male mice program mild obesity, with metabolic and hormonal alterations that are similar to those found in experimental models of diabetes mellitus, suggesting that this metabolic derangement may have at least part of its roots early on in life and, more interestingly, that psychological and nociceptive stimuli induce these features.
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Abbreviations
- ACTH:
-
adrenocorticotropin
- GC:
-
glucocorticoids
- HPA:
-
hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis
- TNF-α:
-
tumor necrosis factor α
- VMH:
-
ventromedial hypothalamic nuclei
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Acknowledgements
Some metabolic data were produced with the help of Dr. Antonio d'Amore and Dr. Paola Capriani. We express deep gratitude to Prof. Federico Bennardini and Dr. Maurizio Mian for advice on the manuscript, to Dr. Roberta Pacifici for leptin analysis data, to Carla Campanella for editorial work, and to Fiona Lewis for the English revision of the manuscript. Stefano Fidanza and Adriano Urcioli provided excellent animal care.
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Supported in part by Italian National Institute of Health Research Programs “Developmental Pharmacology” and “New Preventive and Therapeutic Approach for an Emerging Risk for the Adult Woman and Man Following Fetal and Neonatal Programming Disruption” and in part with the contribution of GIO.I.A Foundation, Pisa, and of Fondazione Cassa di Risparmio Pistoia e Pescia.
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Loizzo, A., Loizzo, S., Galietta, G. et al. Overweight and Metabolic and Hormonal Parameter Disruption Are Induced in Adult Male Mice by Manipulations During Lactation Period. Pediatr Res 59, 111–115 (2006). https://doi.org/10.1203/01.pdr.0000190575.12965.ce
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1203/01.pdr.0000190575.12965.ce
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