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.