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Developmental origins of health and disease (DOHaD) is a field of biological science dedicated to investigating how different interventions during development affect an individual's life. Diet is an essential way to interact with the environment, and during pregnancy affects not only the mother but also can impact the next generations. One of these interventions is caloric restriction (CR), which has shown positive redox modulation in rats' offspring when malnutrition is responsibly controlled. Considering that mitochondrial metabolism is determinant for redox status, we investigated parameters related to mitochondrial functionality and reactive species levels in offspring's brain from rats delivered to pregnant caloric restricted dams. Therefore, pregnant rats were divided between control (ad libitum food) and CR (20% food restriction plus micronutrients supplementation) groups, and offspring's brain was analyzed on post-natal days (PND) 0, 7, 21, and 60. Mitochondrial function, as well as superoxide content, were decreased in most brain areas on PND0 and went through adaptation, showing increased mass and membrane potential in adulthood. Concerning mitochondrial electron transport system (METS), the most affected area was the cerebellum, which was impaired at birth and activated at adulthood. In conclusion, our results show that gestational CR promotes adaptation from impaired mitochondrial parameters at birth, improving mitochondrial function when compared to control, without increasing superoxide generation, at adult age. More studies are necessary in order to support the use of CR as a clinical approach., (Copyright © 2019 ISDN. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

Prenatal and early postnatal environments can permanently influence health throughout life. Early overnutrition increases the risk to develop chronic diseases. Conversely, the intake of flavonoids and exercise practice during pregnancy seem to promote long-term benefits to offspring. We hypothesized that benefic interventions during pregnancy could protect against possible postnatal neurochemical alterations caused by overnutrition induced by reduced litter size. Female Wistar rats were divided into four groups: (1) sedentary + vehicle, (2) sedentary + naringenin, (3) swimming exercise + vehicle, and (4) swimming exercise + naringenin. One day after birth, the litter was culled to 8 pups (control) or 3 pups (overfed) per dam, yielding control and overfed subgroups for each maternal group. Serum of 21-days-old pups was collected, also the cerebellum, hippocampus, and hypothalamus were dissected. Litter size reduction increased fat mass and enhanced body weight. Maternal interventions, when isolated, caused reduced glucose serum levels in offspring nurtured in control litters. In the cerebellum, reducing the litter size decreased the activity of thioredoxin reductase, which was prevented by maternal supplementation with naringenin. Hippocampus and hypothalamus have shown altered antioxidant enzymes activities in response to litter size reduction. Interestingly, when maternal exercise and naringenin supplementation were allied, the effect disappeared, suggesting a concurrent effect of the two maternal interventions. In conclusion, exercise or naringenin supplementation during pregnancy can be important interventions for combating the increasing rates of overweight during the infancy and its related neurochemical changes, especially when applied isolated., (Copyright © 2018 ISDN. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

Several environmental factors affect child development, such as the intrauterine environment during the embryonic and fetal development and early postnatal environment provided by maternal behavior. Although mechanistic effects of maternal exercise on offspring health improvement are not yet completely understood, the number of reports published demonstrating the positive influence of maternal exercise have increase. Herein, we addressed issues related to early postnatal environment provided by maternal behavior and early developmental physical landmarks, sensorimotor reflexes, and motor movements ontogeny. In brief, adult female rats underwent involuntary swimming exercise, in a moderated intensity, one week before mating and throughout pregnancy, 30 min a day, 5 days a week. Maternal exercised dams have unchanged gestational outcomes compared to sedentary dams. We found no differences concerning the frequency of pup-directed behavior displayed by dams. However, sedentary dams displayed a poorer pattern of maternal care quality during dark cycle than exercised dams. Physical landmarks and sensorimotor reflexes development of female and male littermates did not differ between maternal groups. Developmental motor parameters such as immobility, lateral head movements, head elevation, pivoting, rearing with forelimb support and crawling frequencies did not differ between groups. Pups born to exercised dams presented higher frequency of walking and rearing on the hind legs. These data suggest that female and male littermates of exercised group present a high frequency of exploratory behavior over sedentary littermates. Taken together, the present findings reinforce that maternal exercise throughout pregnancy represent a window of opportunity to improve offspring's postnatal health., (Copyright © 2018 ISDN. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)