4.2 The effects on body composition in the mothers and
their offspring
As changes were found in food consumption, as well as in levels of
exposure with physical exercise, we sought to understand body weight and
body composition in mothers and their offspring. Regardless the increase
in maternal caloric intake, no significant increases in maternal weight
was observed. In the post-pregnancy period a decrease was observed,
which may be due to the postpartum period. Indeed in our previous study
by Magenis et al. (2020), this weight drop was observed in the lactation
period, as expected due to the physiological demand postpartum with the
birth of offspring. However, the weight of the fructose group remained
high post-pregnancy. Interestingly, the exercise interventions (G4a, G4b
and G4c) reduced maternal weight (especially the “FRU+VPE/Water+VPE”
and “FRU+VPE/Water” groups compared to the FRU group) and brought it
down to similar weights as in the water treatment groups.
The weight of the offspring was followed up from 7 days after birth
until adulthood at 60 days. In female offspring, the maternal fructose
exposure lead to increased body weight in early life (significant at 7
and 14 days of age) and in adulthood (60 days of age). While maternal
exercise was able to decrease and modulate the offsprings’ body weight,
especially in adulthood. Although, the adiposity index of the female
offspring showed an increase for the fructose group, this difference was
not statistically significant compared to the water group. In the male
offspring an increase in body weight was mainly observed early in life
(7-14 days of age) and the maternal exercise only showed a significant
reduction in body weight at 7 days of age. Regardless, maternal fructose
consumption led to an increase in the male offspring’s adiposity index
(OG3 = FRU group) and maternal exercise significantly decreased
adiposity in the FRU+VPE group (OG4a) at 60 days of life.
It is known that fructose can increase body weight in offspring, as
observed in our previous study by Magenis et al. (2022), where the
offspring were followed up to 30 days of age and an increase in body
weight was observed. Furthermore, it is suggested, as observed in our
current study, that physical exercise can reduce intrahepatic lipids and
abdominal fat with or without weight loss (Thyfault and Rector, 2020).
It is believed that physical exercise is able to increase adipogenesis
in brown adipose tissue, favoring mitochondrial biogenesis with an
increase in PGC-1alpha and UCP1 in male and female offspring of female
mice that performed exercise during pregnancy (Son et al. 2020).
Overall, our current results indicate that the maternal fructose
consumption can change the weight and adiposity of the offspring
throughout life, and that maternal voluntary physical exercise is able
to reduce these adverse effects.