Role of Fat Soluble Vitamins in Neural Pathways Regulating Feeding Behaviour in Male Wistar Rat Offspring

High multivitamin (10-fold AIN-93G levels, HV) intake by Wistar rats during pregnancy results in increased male offspring's body weight and food intake and characteristics of the metabolic syndrome. The hypothesis of this research is that fat soluble vitamins, primarily due to vitamin A, are partially responsible for this effect through modification of development of brain pathways regulating food intake and reward in utero and post-weaning. Three studies were conducted. In study 1, dams were fed AIN-93G diets containing the recommended vitamins (RV) or RV with 10-fold fat soluble vitamins (HFS). In study 2, the dams were fed RV, RV with 10-fold vitamin A (HA) or HV diet with only the recommended vitamin A diets. Male offspring were weaned to a high fat diet for 14 weeks. In study 3, dams were fed the HV diet, while their male offspring were weaned to RV, HV or HA diets for 29 weeks. Study 1 showed that the HFS diet does not reproduce the effects of the HV gestational diet on body weight or food intake of the offspring, but affected development of their higher hedonic regulatory pathways associated with food preference. In study 2, HA intake alone in gestational diets had long-lasting programming effects on the dopaminergic system and decreased sucrose preference but not food intake in the offspring. In study 3, HA in the post-weaning diet reduced the effect of the HV dam's diet on the offspring and modified gene expression in food intake and reward pathways. In conclusion, fat soluble vitamins, explain little of the effect of the HV diet consumed during gestation on the male offspring phenotype, but primarily, due to vitamin A, are important modulators of brain pathways regulating reward both in utero and post-weaning.Ph.D.2016-09-30 00:00:0