Postnatal weaning to different diets leads to different reproductive phenotypes in female offspring following perinatal exposure to high levels of dietary advanced glycation end products

Objective: To examine, following perinatal exposure to a diet high in advanced glycation end products (AGEs), whether the use of standard AGE-free mouse chow during the postweaning period alters metabolism and reproduction differently than exposure to a diet low in AGEs. Design: Experimental animal study. Setting: University-based research laboratory. Animal(s): Female CD1 mice. Intervention(s): Seven-week-old mice were placed on a diet either low or high in AGEs perinatally, before mating and then during pregnancy and lactation. All offspring were weaned onto an AGE-free normal chow. Main Outcome Measure(s): Growth curve, liver and abdominal fat weight, insulin and glucose tolerance tests, vaginal opening, estrous cyclicity, and serum levels of antimüllerian hormone, leptin, and adiponectin were assessed. Ovarian histologic examination for follicular count and gene expression was also performed. Result(s): Compared with the mice exposed to a diet low in AGEs, the mice exposed to a diet high in AGEs showed lower body weight in pups, lower liver weight, delayed vaginal opening, higher serum antimüllerian hormone levels, lower primordial and secondary follicle pools, and higher ovarian Fshr messenger RNA levels. Conclusion(s): Following weaning, perinatal AGEs can target puberty onset and folliculogenesis differently to standard mouse chow.