We studied the consequences of providing rat dams with elevated levels of dietary fat during lactation on stress responses in the offspring at different stages of development. High-fat feeding increased total milk lipid levels, and led to increased lipid deposition and plasma leptin levels in pups. Ten-day-old neonates from high-fat fed mothers had reduced stress responsiveness compared to controls. In contrast, 35-day-old pups from mothers fed high-fat diets showed greater stress-induced ACTH secretion. These findings indicate that maternal diet has effects on hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) responsiveness, which can persist after weaning to a normal rat chow diet. We also investigated macronutrient selection in the offspring, since differences in nutrient preferences may produce long-lasting consequences of lactational diet. However, our results did not support an involvement of maternal diet in postweaning nutrient selection. Furthermore, HPA stress responses were no longer related to maternal diet once offspring reached maturity.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:LACETR/oai:collectionscanada.gc.ca:QMM.20881 |
| Date | January 1997 |
| Creators | Trottier, Geneviève. |
| Contributors | Walker, Claire-Dominique (advisor) |
| Publisher | McGill University |
| Source Sets | Library and Archives Canada ETDs Repository / Centre d'archives des thèses électroniques de Bibliothèque et Archives Canada |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Electronic Thesis or Dissertation |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Coverage | Master of Science (Department of Psychiatry.) |
| Rights | All items in eScholarship@McGill are protected by copyright with all rights reserved unless otherwise indicated. |
| Relation | alephsysno: 001604699, proquestno: MQ44302, Theses scanned by UMI/ProQuest. |
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