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Maternal Undernutrition and Visceral Adiposity

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Diet, Nutrition, and Fetal Programming

Part of the book series: Nutrition and Health ((NH))

Abstract

The global epidemic of obesity and associated metabolic disorders continue to develop, affecting quality of life in developed as well as developing countries. Traditionally, intake of unhealthy diets and lack of physical activity in postnatal life were considered to be the major risk factors for development of visceral obesity and metabolic diseases. Recent studies have pointed out that malnutrition also prior to birth plays a vital role in the predisposition for visceral obesity and metabolic disorders. In this review, we highlight how maternal undernutrition during critical periods of foetal development affects traits associated with development of visceral obesity later in life. Prenatal undernutrition particularly during the later stages of gestation can induce differential signals in adipose tissue in such a way that lipid storing capacity and hence expandability of subcutaneous fat are compromised leading to marked overexpansion (adipocyte hypertrophy) of visceral adipose tissues, in sheep particularly in perirenal fat. Such changes in adiposity can result in elevated inflammatory responses and associated metabolic disturbances. Foetal undernutrition is associated with epigenetic changes resulting in altered expression of key genes, which potentially can be involved in this development of visceral obesity, but the detailed mechanisms are not yet well known. Proper nutrition during critical periods of foetal development is thus important to counteract the increased trend of visceral obesity and associated disorders in humans, and a healthy diet postnatally appears particular important for individuals exposed to undernutrition prenatally.

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Abbreviations

ATM:

Adipose tissue macrophages

BMI:

Body mass index

CD-68:

Cluster of differentiation-68

HIF:

Hypoxia inducible factor

IL-6:

Interleukin-6

PPARγ:

Peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor γ

SGA:

Small for gestational age

SREBP-1:

Sterol regulatory binding protein-1

TLR-4:

Toll-like receptor-4

TNF-α:

Tumour necrosis factor-α

VEGF:

Vascular endothelial growth factor

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Veterinary and Animal Sciences, Faculty of Health and Medical Sciences, University of Copenhagen, Frederiksberg, Denmark

    Prabhat Khanal PhD & Mette Olaf Nielsen PhD

  2. Institute of Basic Medical Sciences, Department of Nutrition, Faculty of Medicine, Norwegian Transgenic Centre, University of Oslo, Oslo, Norway

    Prabhat Khanal PhD

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  1. Prabhat Khanal PhD
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  2. Mette Olaf Nielsen PhD
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Correspondence to Mette Olaf Nielsen PhD .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Nutrition, King's College, London, United Kingdom

    Rajkumar Rajendram

  2. Department of Nutrition, King's College, London, United Kingdom

    Victor R. Preedy

  3. Department of Biomedical Sciences, University of Westminster, London, United Kingdom

    Vinood B. Patel

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Khanal, P., Nielsen, M.O. (2017). Maternal Undernutrition and Visceral Adiposity. In: Rajendram, R., Preedy, V., Patel, V. (eds) Diet, Nutrition, and Fetal Programming. Nutrition and Health. Humana Press, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-60289-9_8

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