2.3 Body composition and food consumption of animals
The mothers were weighed throughout the experiment according to their
periods (pre-pregnancy at week 8, at the end of pregnancy at week 12 and
post-pregnancy at week 15) and the offspring (males and females) at ages
(7, 14, 21, 30 and 60 days of age). Food consumption (food and fructose
solution) was calculated weekly by weighing the total amount of food (g)
and liquids (mL) given to the animals and subtracting the food (g) and
liquids (mL) from the remainder in the cage and hydration bottle
throughout the experiment (Diniz
et al., 2004; Diniz et al., 2005). From this, the daily calories
ingested on the day were calculated, since the chow provides 3.36 kcal/g
and the fructose solution 4 kcal/mL
(Kending et al., 2014).
To assess the adiposity index of the animals, epididymal, mesenteric,
perirenal and retroperitoneal adipose tissue were extracted to calculate
the adiposity index (gram of fat/gram body weight x 100). This
evaluation was performed after euthanasia of the offspring (males and
females) at 60 days of age.