Conclusion
In this study, we sought to evaluate the different combinations and durations of interventions with voluntary physical exercise during the gestational period. Although, we did not find similar combinations of interventions in the literature as in our metabolic programming model, it has been reported that combining a change in eating habits and lifestyle make the benefits more effective in healthy adults (Martinez-Avila et al., 2020; Lelis et al., 2020).
We showed that the practice of physical exercise in the control group did not lead to maternal and offspring changes, ie, it does not cause harm. Overall, we observed that maternal voluntary physical exercise has a protective effect on genomic stability in mothers and their offspring, reversing the adverse effects observed in blood and liver in response to the chronic high consumption of maternal fructose. In addition, we provide evidence for metabolic programming caused by the various maternal treatments that have a lasting effect in the offspring until adulthood. However, the intervention with VPE was not able to reach the point of returning to the similar levels as the controls. It is possible that the effects on pregnant mice, as well as the transplacental effect of the direct passage of fructose, confer indirect and direct metabolic risk to the offspring later in life. However, more studies are needed in order to understand its long-term effects on the adult life of the offspring and also to study other metabolic pathways.
To conclude, our data indicate that, regardless the period during which the exercise was performed (pre-, post- or during pregnancy), the practice of exercise during pregnancy becomes essential to obtain the observed metabolic and genomic benefits for the mother and offspring, and that when combined with changing to water, the benefits are even better.
Acknowledgments: The authors would also like to thank the Graduate Program in Health Sciences (PPGCS), Coordination for the Improvement of Higher Education Personnel (CAPES); National Council of Technological and Scientific Development (CNPq – 304203/2018-1); Santa Catarina Research and Innovation Support Foundation (FAPESC); and the University of Southern Santa Catarina (UNESC).
Conflicts of Interest: The authors declare no conflict of interest.
Funding: This work was not funded.
Data Accessibility Statement: The animals body composition and food consumption, genome damage assessment, fasting glycemia and insulin tolerance test (ITT) are in the Microsoft Excel and Prism - GraphPad database.
Histological analyzes were performed using the Axio Scan.Z1® (ZEISS, Jena, Germany) to capture images of all sample areas. After pre-processing these images with Adobe Photoshop CS6 v 13.0 ® (Adobe, San Jose, CA) in order to improve quality and separate the images, they were analyzed with Image Pro Plus v.4.5.0.29.
Benefit-Sharing Statement: A research collaboration was developed with scientists from the countries providing genetic samples, all collaborators are included as co-authors, the results of research have been shared with the provider communities and the broader scientific community (see above), and the research addresses a priority concern, in this case the conservation of organisms being studied. More broadly, our group is committed to international scientific partnerships, as well as institutional capacity building.