Maternal Intermittent Fasting Before Mating Alters Hepatic DNA Methylation in Offspring

Abstract

Aim: Our aim was to explore how maternal intermittent fasting (IF) influences offspring metabolism. Materials & methods: A model of female C57BL/6J mice alternate-day feeding before mating was established and alteration of hepatic DNA methylation in offspring analyzed by whole genome bisulfite sequencing. Results: IF dams weighed less (p = 0.03) and had lower random blood glucose levels (p = 0.04). Lower birth weight (p = 0.0031) and impaired glucose metabolism were also observed in the offspring of the IF mice. The hepatic genome-wide DNA methylation maps showed a correlation between maternal IF and decreased hepatic global DNA methylation of adult offspring. In the offspring liver, 2869 differentially methylated DNA regions were altered. Conclusions: Our finding suggests that maternal IF before mating significantly alters hepatic DNA methylation in offspring.

Keywords::

• DNA methylation
• epigenome modifications
• liver
• maternal intermittent fasting
• metabolism
• offspring

Supplementary data

To view the supplementary data that accompany this paper please visit the journal website at: www.tandfonline.com/doi/suppl/10.2217/epi-2020-0403

Financial & competing interests disclosure

This work was supported by funds from the National Key R&D Program of China (2017YFC0908900) and the National Natural Science Foundation of China (81930015, 81730020, 82070592). The authors have no other relevant affiliations or financial involvement with any organization or entity with a financial interest in or financial conflict with the subject matter or materials discussed in the manuscript apart from those disclosed.

No writing assistance was utilized in the production of this manuscript.

Ethical conduct of research

The authors state that they have obtained appropriate institutional review board approval or have followed the principles outlined in the Declaration of Helsinki for all human or animal experimental investigations. In addition, for investigations involving human subjects, informed consent has been obtained from the participants involved.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by funds from the National Key R&D Program of China (2017YFC0908900) and the National Natural Science Foundation of China (81930015, 81730020, 82070592). The authors have no other relevant affiliations or financial involvement with any organization or entity with a financial interest in or financial conflict with the subject matter or materials discussed in the manuscript apart from those disclosed.