Increasing vitamin A in post-weaning diets reduces food intake and body weight and modifies gene expression in brains of male rats born to dams fed a high multivitamin diet

• Published in: The Journal of nutritional biochemistry Vol. 25; no. 10; pp. 991 - 996
• Main Authors: Sánchez-Hernández, Diana, Cho, Clara E., Kubant, Ruslan, Reza-López, Sandra A., Poon, Abraham N., Wang, Jingzhou, Huot, Pedro S.P., Smith, Christopher E., Anderson, G. Harvey
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: United States Elsevier Inc 01.10.2014
• Subjects: Animals; Diet - veterinary; DNA Methylation - drug effects; Dose-Response Relationship, Drug; Epigenetics; Gene Expression; Hippocampus; Hippocampus - drug effects; Hippocampus - metabolism; Hypothalamus; Hypothalamus - drug effects; Hypothalamus - metabolism; Male; Obesity; Pro-Opiomelanocortin - genetics; Pro-Opiomelanocortin - metabolism; Rats; Rats, Wistar; Recommended Dietary Allowances; Vitamin A; Vitamin A - administration & dosage; Vitamins - administration & dosage; Weaning; Weight Gain; Obesity; RV; RARα; Hypothalamus; Gene expression; HV; S.E.M; POMC; Vitamin A; ANOVA; NPY; Epigenetics; HA; CpG; DRD1; DRD2; 5HT1A; GAPDH; HPLC; Hippocampus; DRD5
• DOI: 10.1016/j.jnutbio.2014.05.002
• ISSN: 0955-2863

High multivitamin gestational diets (HV, 10-fold AIN-93G levels) increase body weight (BW) and food intake (FI) in rat offspring weaned to a recommended multivitamin (RV), but not to a HV diet. We hypothesized that high vitamin A (HA) alone, similar to HV, in post-weaning diets would prevent these effects of the HV maternal diet consistent with gene expression in FI and reward pathways. Male offspring from dams fed HV diets were weaned to a high vitamin A (HA, 10-fold AIN-93G levels), HV or RV diet for 29 weeks. BW, FI, expression of genes involved in regulation of FI and reward and global and gene-specific DNA methylation of pro-opiomelanocortin (POMC) in the hypothalamus were measured. Both HV and HA diets slowed post-weaning weight gain and modified gene expression in offspring compared to offspring fed an RV post-weaning diet. Hypothalamic POMC expression in HA offspring was not different from either HV or RV, and dopamine receptor 1 was 30% (P<.05) higher in HA vs. HV, but not different from RV group. Hippocampal expression of serotonin receptor 1A (40%, P<.01), dopamine receptor 2 (40%, P<.05) and dopamine receptor 5 (70%, P<.0001) was greater in HA vs. RV fed pups and is 40% (P<.01), 50% (P<.05) and 40% (P<.0001) in HA vs. HV pups, respectively. POMC DNA methylation was lower in HA vs. RV offspring (P<.05). We conclude that high vitamin A in post-weaning diets reduces post-weaning weight gain and FI and modifies gene expression in FI and reward pathways.