Early undernutrition attenuates the inflammatory response in adult rat offspring

Objective. We determined the impact of maternal food restriction during gestation and lactation or lactation alone on basal inflammation and lipopolysaccharide (LPS)-stimulated cytokine induction in adult female offspring. Study design. From 10 days of gestation to term, pregnant rats received either ad libitum (control) feed or were 50% food restricted (FR). Pups were either nursed by their own dams or were cross-fostered to give three groups, namely, Control (AdLib/AdLib), FR during lactation (AdLib/FR) and FR during pregnancy and lactation (FR/FR). All offspring were weaned to ad libitum rat chow. At 9 months of age, basal inflammation and LPS-stimulated cytokine responsiveness were determined in female offspring. Results. The basal CRP levels were elevated in AdLib/FR and FR/FR as compared to Controls. In contrast, LPS induction of IL-1 beta and IL-6 was significantly attenuated in the AdLib/FR and FR/FR offspring as compared to the Control group. Conclusions. These findings suggest that early undernutrition, particularly during prenatal and postnatal periods, affects offspring immune competence by increasing basal inflammation while reducing cytokine induction to inflammatory stimuli.