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In a hypergravity environment neonatal survival is adversely affected by alterations in dam tissue metabolism rather than reduced food intake

¹Department of Animal Science, University of Vermont, Burlington, Vermont; and ²National Aeronautics and Space Administration-Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, California

Submitted 11 September 2006 ; accepted in final form 20 February 2007

Exposure of rat dams to hypergravity during pregnancy is associated with increased pup mortality, reduced food intake, and decreased rates of glucose oxidation and lipogenesis in mammary tissue. We hypothesized that increased pup mortality is due to changes in maternal metabolism and not to reduced food intake of dams. Effects of hypergravity on rate of glucose oxidation and lipogenesis in mammary, liver, and adipose tissue were measured in rat dams centrifuged at 2.0 G [hypergravity (HG)], kept at 1.0 G (control), or fed to match the intake of HG rats (pair fed) from gestation day 11 (G11) until G21 or postpartum day 3 (P3). Body weight, percent body fat, metabolizable energy, and nitrogen balance were significantly less in HG dams compared with controls (P < 0.05); however, these factors were not different between HG and pair-fed dams. By P3, 100% of control and pair-fed pups survived, while only 49% of HG pups survived. At G21, rates of glucose oxidation and lipogenesis in mammary and adipose tissue were less in HG than in control and pair-fed dams (P < 0.1 and P < 0.05). In liver, at G21, the rate of lipogenesis was greater in HG than control and pair-fed dams (P < 0.01); at P3, lipogenesis was greater in control than HG and pair-fed dams (P < 0.05). Gene expression of ATP citrate lyase, acetyl-CoA carboxylase, and fatty acid synthase increased in liver from pregnancy to lactation in control and pair-fed dams but not HG dams. Thus reduced food intake and body mass due to hypergravity exposure cannot explain the dramatic decrease in HG pup survival.

glucose oxidation; metabolizable energy; mammary