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To assess the impact of prebiotic supplementation during gestation and fetal and early neonatal life, gestating BALB/cj dam mice were fed either a control or a prebiotic (galacto-oligosaccharides–inulin, 9:1 ratio)-enriched diet throughout pregnancy and lactation, and allowed to nurse their pups until weaning. At the time of weaning, male offspring mice were separated from their mothers, weaned to the same solid diet as their dam and their growth was monitored until killed 48 d after weaning. Prebiotic treatment affected neither the body-weight gain nor the food intake of pregnant mice. In contrast, at the time of weaning, pups that had been nursed by prebiotic-fed dams had a higher body weight (11·0 (se 1·2) g) than pups born from control dams (9·8 (se 0·9) g). At 48 d after weaning, significantly higher values were observed for colon length and muscle mass in the offspring of prebiotic-fed dams (1·2 (se 0·1) cm/cm and 5·7 (se 1·8) mg/g, respectively), compared with control offspring (1·1 (se 0·1) cm/cm and 2·9 (se 0·9) mg/g, respectively), without any difference in spleen and stomach weight, or serum leptin concentration. The present preliminary study suggests that altering the fibre content of the maternal diet during both pregnancy and lactation enhances offspring growth, through an effect on intestinal and muscle mass rather than fat mass accretion. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]