Establishment of obesity model in offspring rats induced by early overfeeding

Abstract:

Objective：To investigate the effects of early overfeeding on the obesity of offspring rats and to provide references for experi－ment in child obesity. Methods：Early overfeeding female rat model was established on the 3rd d after birth by reducing the litter size to 3 pups per litter（small litter，SL），which was in con－trast to the normal litter size of 10 pups per litter（NL）. The pups were weaned onto regular chow after breast feeding for 21 d. At the 8th week，these rats were bred with normal male rats and offsprings of the early overfeeding and control rats were generated. Offsprings of both two groups were culled and raised as 10 pups per dam and weaned onto regular chow on the 21st d. Body weight and daily food intake were routinely recorded. Rats were killed on the 30th d and HE staining was performed to observe the morphology of epididymal fat. Results：Body weight of early overfeeding female rats was （40.75±0.89） g while that of control female rats was （33.01±1.71） g （t=4.021，P=0.007）. Compared with those of offspring of control rats，offspring of early overfeeding rats showed significant body weight gain（F=465.387，P=0.000） and hyperplasia（t=3.709，P=0.006）. Adipocyte size in epididymal fat was larger in early overfeeding rats than in cortrol rats（t=4.487，P=0.001） based on HE staining observation. Conclusion：Maternal obesity can induce the risk of obesity in offspring.