Maternal genetics and diet modulate vitamin A homeostasis of the offspring and affect the susceptibility to obesity in adulthood in mice.

Perinatal nutrition exerts a profound influence on adult metabolic health. This study aimed to investigate whether increased maternal vitamin A (VA) supply can lead to beneficial metabolic phenotypes in the offspring. The researchers utilized mice deficient in the intestine-specific homeobox (ISX) transcription factor, which exhibits increased intestinal VA retinoid production from dietary β-carotene (BC). ISX-deficient dams were fed a VA-sufficient or a BC-enriched diet during the last week of gestation and the whole lactation period. Total retinol levels in milk and weanling livers were 2- to 2.5-fold higher in the offspring of BC-fed dams (BC offspring), indicating increased VA supplies during late gestation and lactation. The corresponding VA-sufficient and BC offspring (males and females) were compared at weaning and adulthood after being fed either a standard or high-fat diet (HFD) with regular VA content for 13 weeks from weaning. HFD-induced increases in adiposity metrics, such as fat depot mass and adipocyte diameter, were more pronounced in males than females and were attenuated or suppressed in the BC offspring. Notably, the BC offspring were protected from HFD-induced increases in circulating triacylglycerol levels and hepatic steatosis. These protective effects were associated with reduced food efficiency, enhanced capacity for thermogenesis and mitochondrial oxidative metabolism in adipose tissues, and increased adipocyte hyperplasia rather than hypertrophy in the BC offspring. In conclusion, maternal VA nutrition influenced by genetics may confer metabolic benefits to the offspring, with mild increases in late gestation and lactation protecting against obesity and metabolic dysregulation in adulthood. NEW & NOTEWORTHY A genetic mouse model, deficient in intestine-specific homeobox (ISX) transcription factor, is used to show that a mildly increased maternal vitamin A supply from β-carotene feeding during late gestation and lactation programs energy and lipid metabolism in tissues and protects the offspring from diet-induced hypertrophic obesity and hepatic steatosis. This knowledge may have implications for human populations where polymorphisms in ISX and ISX target genes involved in vitamin A homeostasis are prevalent.