1. Prolonged fasting elicits increased hepatic triglyceride accumulation in rats born to dexamethasone-treated mothers
- Author
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Gabriel Forato Anhê, Sandra C. Rodrigues, Frhancielly Shirley Sodré, Camilo Lellis-Santos, Dailson Nogueira de Souza, Lucas Carminatti Pantaleão, Junia Carolina Santos-Silva, Caio Jordão Teixeira, Daniella Duque-Guimarães, Silvana Bordin, Patrícia Rodrigues Lourenço Gomes, Gilson Masahiro Murata, Tanyara Payolla, and Juliana de Camargo Vieira
- Subjects
0301 basic medicine ,medicine.medical_specialty ,Time Factors ,ATP citrate lyase ,lcsh:Medicine ,030209 endocrinology & metabolism ,PKM2 ,Carbohydrate metabolism ,Article ,Dexamethasone ,03 medical and health sciences ,chemistry.chemical_compound ,0302 clinical medicine ,Liver Function Tests ,Pregnancy ,Internal medicine ,Glucose Intolerance ,medicine ,Animals ,Citrate synthase ,Glycolysis ,lcsh:Science ,Triglycerides ,Multidisciplinary ,biology ,Triglyceride ,lcsh:R ,Glucose transporter ,Fasting ,Rats ,Glucose ,030104 developmental biology ,Endocrinology ,Liver ,chemistry ,Maternal Exposure ,Prenatal Exposure Delayed Effects ,biology.protein ,Female ,lcsh:Q ,Proto-Oncogene Proteins c-akt ,Biomarkers ,hormones, hormone substitutes, and hormone antagonists ,Pyruvate kinase - Abstract
We investigated the effect of dexamethasone during the last week of pregnancy on glucose and lipid metabolism in male offspring. Twelve-week old offspring were evaluated after fasting for 12-hours (physiological) and 60-hours (prolonged). Physiological fasting resulted in glucose intolerance, decreased glucose clearance after pyruvate load and increased PEPCK expression in rats born to dexamethasone-treated mothers (DEX). Prolonged fasting resulted in increased glucose tolerance and increased glucose clearance after pyruvate load in DEX. These modulations were accompanied by accumulation of hepatic triglycerides (TG). Sixty-hour fasted DEX also showed increased citrate synthase (CS) activity, ATP citrate lyase (ACLY) content, and pyruvate kinase 2 (pkm2), glucose transporter 1 (slc2a1) and lactate dehydrogenase-a (ldha) expressions. Hepatic AKT2 was increased in 60-hour fasted DEX, in parallel with reduced miRNAs targeting the AKT2 gene. Altogether, we show that metabolic programming by prenatal dexamethasone is characterized by an unexpected hepatic TG accumulation during prolonged fasting. The underlying mechanism may depend on increased hepatic glycolytic flux due to increased pkm2 expression and consequent conversion of pyruvate to non-esterified fatty acid synthesis due to increased CS activity and ACLY levels. Upregulation of AKT2 due to reduced miRNAs may serve as a permanent mechanism leading to increased pkm2 expression.
- Published
- 2017
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