- FRIDAY, Nov. 14 (HealthDay News) — Eating a high-fat diet during
pregnancy causes permanent changes in the fetal brain that can result in
overeating and obesity early in life, according to a study with rats.

The researchers from Rockefeller University in New York City said their
finding is an important advance in understanding mechanisms of fetal
programming. It also sheds light on the production of new brain cells,
helping to explain the dramatic rise of childhood obesity in the United
States over the past three decades.

“We've shown that short-term exposure to a high-fat diet in utero
produces permanent neurons in the fetal brain that later increase the
appetite for fat,” study senior author Sarah F. Leibowitz, director of the
Laboratory of Behavioral Neurobiology at Rockefeller, said in a university
news release. “This work provides the first evidence for a fetal program
that links high levels of fat circulating in the mother's blood during
pregnancy to the overeating and increased weight gain of offspring after
weaning.”

For the study, pregnant rats were fed either a high-fat or a balanced
diet for two weeks. Pups born to mothers that ate the high-fat diet ate
more, weighed more throughout life, and began puberty earlier than pups
born to mothers that ate a balanced diet. The pups born to the mothers
that at the high-fat diet also had higher levels of triglycerides in the
blood at birth and as adults, and also had greater production of brain
peptides that stimulate eating and weight gain.

The study was published in the Nov. 12 issue of the Journal of
Neuroscience.

The creation of neurons that increase the appetite for fat may also
occur in human babies born to mothers who eat a high-fat diet during
pregnancy, Leibowitz said.

“We're programming our children to be fat,” she believes. “I think it's
very clear that there's vulnerability in the developing brain, and we've
identified the site of this action where new neurons are being born. We
now need to understand how the lipids affect these precursor cells that
form these fat-sensitive neurons that live with us throughout life.”

More information

The Nemours Foundation has more about overweight and obesity in children.