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Metabolic Alterations From Different Protein Intakes During Infancy Are Not Reflected In Adulthood
Author(s) -
Des Robert Clotilde,
Li Nan,
Neu Josef
Publication year - 2006
Publication title -
the faseb journal
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.709
H-Index - 277
eISSN - 1530-6860
pISSN - 0892-6638
DOI - 10.1096/fasebj.20.5.a1047-a
Subject(s) - medicine , endocrinology , glut2 , carbohydrate metabolism , litter , glut4 , metabolic syndrome , biology , insulin , physiology , glucose transporter , diabetes mellitus , agronomy
Nutritional aberrations during early development program for adult health. High carbohydrate intakes in infant rats lead to metabolic syndrome in adulthood. Whether similar effects occur with protein intakes is not known. Baby formulas contain higher protein than human milk. “Catch up” growth is frequently attempted for infants who are small because of prematurity or illness. We hypothesized that a high protein intake would cause metabolic aberrations in infancy that would program for metabolic syndrome in adulthood. Rat pups that were litter expanded to 18–20 pups per mother for D1–7 postnatal in order to attain growth delay were fed via gastrostomy from D7–14 randomized to 3 groups with 50%, 100% and 130% of mother‐fed amounts of protein. On D15, the pups were placed back with their mothers, and weaned as to regular chow. Glucose metabolism was evaluated shortly after the gastrostomy feeding period (D14) and weights and glucose tolerance tests were performed at D 130, 180 and 250. The median insulin/glucose ratios were higher in the infants fed the130% protein; GLUT4 and GLUT2 expressions were highest on the adipocytes, muscle and liver of the 50% group, whereas the insulin receptor concentrations were not different. PEPCK/Actin was highest in the 50% group. Despite differences during infancy, adults did not exhibit significant differences in body or organ weights, glucose tolerance, or abdominal fat. In contrast to studies showing long term detrimental effects of early high carbohydrates, these studies suggest that despite early metabolic differences, there are no long term effects of marginally higher (+30%)or lower (−50%) protein intakes during infancy.