Maternal Diet High in Linoleic Acid Alters Offspring Lipids and Hepatic Regulators of Lipid Metabolism in an Adolescent Rat Model.

Linoleic acid (LA), an n-6 polyunsaturated fatty acid (PUFA), is essential for fetal growth and development. A maternal high LA (HLA) diet alters cardiovascular development in adolescent rats and hepatic function in adult rats in a sex-specific manner. We investigated the effects of an HLA diet on adolescent offspring hepatic lipids and hepatic lipid metabolism gene expression, and the ability of the postnatal diet to alter these effects. Female Wistar Kyoto rats were fed low LA (LLA; 1.44% energy from LA) or high LA (HLA; 6.21% energy from LA) diets during pregnancy and gestation/lactation. Offspring, weaned at postnatal day (PN) 25, were fed LLA or HLA and euthanised at PN40 (n = 6-8). Maternal HLA increased circulating uric acid, decreased hepatic cholesterol and increased hepatic Pparg in males, whereas only hepatic Srebf1 and Hmgcr increased in females. Postnatal (post-weaning) HLA decreased liver weight (% body weight) and increased hepatic Hmgcr in males, and decreased hepatic triglycerides in females. Maternal and postnatal HLA had an interaction effect on Lpl, Cpt1a and Pparg in females. These findings suggest that an HLA diet both during and after pregnancy should be avoided to improve offspring disease risk.

Association between bilirubin and biomarkers of metabolic health and oxidative stress in the MARK-AGE cohort.

Recent studies have shown that elevated concentrations of unconjugated bilirubin (UCB) may be a protective host factor against the development of noncommunicable diseases (NCDs), whereas low levels of UCB are associated with the opposite effect. The results of this European study, in which 2,489 samples were tested for their UCB concentration using high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) and additional data from the MARK-AGE database were used for analysis, provide further evidence that elevated UCB concentrations are linked to a lower risk of developing NCDs and may act as a predictive marker of biological aging as individuals with elevated UCB concentrations showed favorable outcomes in metabolic health and oxidative-stress-related biomarkers. These findings underline the significance of studying individuals with moderate hyperbilirubinemia and investigate UCB routinely, also in the setting of aging, since this condition affects millions of people worldwide but has been underrepresented in clinical research and practice until now.