HOME
Return to Table of Contents
MATERNAL DIET ALTERS INTESTINAL PHYSIOLOGY AND SENSITIVITY TO EXPERIMENTAL COLITIS IN OFFSPRING RATS
C Dai, X Wu, AM Buchan, SM Innis, K Jacobson
Inflammatory bowel diseases (IBD) are recurrent inflammatory disorders whose origins can be attributed to both genetic and environmental factors. Increasing evidence suggests that luminal stimuli and intestinal epithelial barrier dysfunction contribute to the pathogenesis and progression of IBD.
AIM: To determine whether maternal dietary polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFAs) during gestation and lactation had long-lasting effects on colonic barrier integrity and mucosal responsiveness to a chemical insult in young adult male offspring rats.
METHODS: Female rats were fed isocaloric diets varying only in fat composition provided as safflower oil (SO) high in linoleic acid (18:2n-6), canola oil (CO) high in alpha linolenic acid (18:3n-3) and 10% safflower oil with 90% fish oil (FO) high in eicosapentaenoic acid (20:5n-3) and docosahexaenoic acid (22:6n-3). At 21 days of age pups were weaned onto chow diet. Colonic phospholipid fatty acids and crypt depth were determined on neonatal day 15 and week 12. Intestinal permeability was assessed at week 12. Colitis was induced with dinitrobenzene sulfonic acid at week 12.
RESULTS: Maternal dietary n-6 and n-3 fatty acids were transferred to colonic phospholipids of nursing pups. On neonatal day 15, SO pups had significantly higher LA and arachidonic acid (20:4n-6), in their colonic phosphatidylethanolamine (PE) and phosphatidylcholine (PC), and FO pups had significantly higher EPA and DHA than other diet groups, whereas CO pups had significantly higher ALA in colonic PC than other diet groups. CO and FO pups had evidence of reduced colonic crypt depth, in contrast to SO pups. Despite similar colonic n-6 and n-3 fatty acids observed between offspring group’s post-weaning, reduced colonic crypt depth persisted in the FO group in association with enhanced paracellular permeability. In contrast, crypt depth increased in the CO group to levels similar to the SO group, associated with normal paracellular permeability. Consistent with the changes in barrier integrity, DNBS administration resulted in severe colitis in the FO offspring group, followed by the CO group, whereas the SO group had the least severe colitis response with most pronounced epithelial regeneration.
CONCLUSION: High maternal dietary intake of n-3 PUFAs in the absence of adequate n-6 PUFAs appears to have long lasting deleterious effects on barrier integrity, predisposing offspring to an exaggerated inflammatory response to a chemical insult in later life.
Supported by NSERC