Developmental programming of the metabolic syndrome: Next-generation sequencing analysis of transcriptome expression in a rat model of maternal high fructose intake

Excessive fructose intake is related to a high prevalence of metabolic syndrome, while little attention has been paid to the impact of maternal high-fructose (HF) intake on the development of metabolic syndrome and organ-specific transcriptome alterations in the offspring. We utilized RNA next-generation sequencing (NGS) technology to analyze the transcriptome expression in four organs (kidney, brain, heart, and urinary bladder) from 1-day, 3-week, and 3-month-old male offspring exposed to maternal HF diet. Maternal HF induced various phenotypes of metabolic syndrome in adult male offspring. We observed that maternal HF exposure induces long-term alterations of gene expression in the brain, heart, kidney, and urinary bladder in adult offspring. Different organs do not respond similarly to maternal HF intake. We found that changes in expression of Errfi1 and Ctgf were shared by four organs at 1 day of age. Also, a number of genes regulating fructose metabolism, glycolysis/gluconeogenesis, fatty acid metabolism, and insulin signalling appear to be regulated by maternal HF intake in different organs at 1 day of age. Our NGS results are of significance to the development of maternal interventions in the prevention of maternal HF-induced organ-specific programming, in order to reduce the global burden of metabolic syndrome.