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Vertebrate reproductive science and technology
RESEARCH ARTICLE

Maternal swimming with overload allied to postnatal high-fat, high-sugar diet induce subtle impairment on rat offspring’s ovarian redox homeostasis

Bárbara Mariño Dal Magro A , Bernardo Gindri dos Santos A , Pauline Maciel August B , Manuela Zeferino Menegotto A , David Driemeier C and Cristiane Matté https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4720-6394 A B *
+ Author Affiliations
- Author Affiliations

A Programa de Pós-graduação em Ciências Biológicas: Bioquímica, ICBS, Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul, Porto Alegre, RS, Brazil.

B Departamento de Bioquímica, Instituto de Ciências Básicas da Saúde, Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul, Porto Alegre, RS, Brazil.

C Setor de Anatomia Patológica Veterinária, Departamento de Patologia Clínica Veterinária, Faculdade de Veterinária, Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul, Porto Alegre, Brazil.

* Correspondence to: matte@ufrgs.br

Handling Editor: Richard Lea

Reproduction, Fertility and Development 37, RD24132 https://doi.org/10.1071/RD24132
Submitted: 19 August 2024  Accepted: 27 November 2024  Published online: 19 December 2024

© 2025 The Author(s) (or their employer(s)). Published by CSIRO Publishing

Abstract

Context

The Developmental Origins of Health and Disease (DOHaD) concept suggests that early-life interventions significantly influence the long-term health outcomes of offspring. Emerging evidence supports that maternal physical exercise and balanced nutrition can positively impact the health of the next generation.

Aims

This study investigated the effects of maternal swimming combined with postnatal high-fat, high-sugar (HFHS) diet on the ovarian health of adult female Wistar rat offspring.

Methods

Adult female Wistar rats performed swimming exercise in a controlled temperature environment (32°C, 2% bodyweight overload adjusted daily) during 4 weeks, starting 1 week prior mating. The female offspring received a control or HFHS diet from postnatal day (PND) 21 to PND 90. We analyzed offspring’s body weight, ovarian histomorphology, redox status, and associated molecular pathways 5′ adenosine monophosphate-activated protein kinase (AMPKα), forkhead box O3 (FoxO3), and mitofusin 1 (Mfn-1).

Key results

Our findings reveal that maternal swimming exerted an effect on offspring body weight gain, delaying it. Individually, maternal exercise reduced superoxide dismutase (SOD) activity and mitofusin-1 levels, while the postnatal HFHS diet alone decreased both SOD and glutathione peroxidase (GPx) activities and increased the pFOXO3a/FOXO3a ratio in the ovaries.

Conclusions

We showed that combination of maternal swimming with a 2% overload and a postnatal HFHS diet can negatively affect the ovarian redox balance in offspring.

Implications

Prenatal and postnatal lifestyle might affect reproductive function in females.

Keywords: antioxidant, DOHaD, high fat high sugar diet, maternal exercise, ovary, rat, redox signalling, redox status.

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