Maternal emulsifier consumption programs offspring metabolic and neuropsychological health in mice.

Modern lifestyle is associated with a major consumption of ultra-processed foods (UPF) due to their practicality and palatability. The ingestion of emulsifiers, a main additive in UPFs, has been related to gut inflammation, microbiota dysbiosis, adiposity, and obesity. Maternal unbalanced nutritional habits during embryonic and perinatal stages perturb offspring's long-term metabolic health, thus increasing obesity and associated comorbidity risk. However, whether maternal emulsifier consumption influences developmental programming in the offspring remains unknown. Here, we show that, in mice, maternal consumption of dietary emulsifiers (1% carboxymethyl cellulose (CMC) and 1% P80 in drinking water), during gestation and lactation, perturbs the development of hypothalamic energy balance regulation centers of the progeny, leads to metabolic impairments, cognition deficits, and induces anxiety-like traits in a sex-specific manner. Our findings support the notion that maternal consumption of emulsifiers, common additives of UPFs, causes mild metabolic and neuropsychological malprogramming in the progeny. Our data call for nutritional advice during gestation.

White adipose tissue dysfunction in obesity and aging.

Both obesity and aging are associated with the development of metabolic diseases such as type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular disease. Chronic low-grade inflammation of adipose tissue is one of the mechanisms implicated in the progression of these diseases. Obesity and aging trigger adipose tissue alterations that ultimately lead to a pro-inflammatory phenotype of the adipose tissue-resident immune cells. Obesity and aging also share other features such as a higher visceral vs. subcutaneous adipose tissue ratio and a decreased lifespan. Here, we review the common characteristics of obesity and aging and the alterations in white adipose tissue and resident immune cells. We focus on the adipose tissue metabolic derangements in obesity and aging such as inflammation and adipose tissue remodeling.