The Journal of endocrinology
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Comparative Study
Endocrine effects of tobacco smoke exposure during lactation in weaned and adult male offspring.
Children from pregnant smokers show more susceptibility to develop obesity in adult life. Previously, we failed to demonstrate a program for obesity in rat offspring only when the mothers were exposed to tobacco smoke during lactation. Here, we studied the short- and long-term effects of smoke exposure (SE) to both dams and their pups during lactation on endocrine and metabolic parameters. ⋯ At weaning, SE pups showed lower body weight (7%), length (5%), retroperitoneal fat mass (59%), visceral adipocyte area (60%), and higher subcutaneous adipocyte area (95%) with hypoinsulinemia (-29%), hyperthyroxinemia (59%), hypercorticosteronemia (60%), and higher adrenal catecholamine content (+58%). In adulthood, SE offspring showed higher food intake (+10%), body total fat mass (+50%), visceral fat mass (retroperitoneal: 55%; mesenteric: 67%; and epididymal: 55%), and lower subcutaneous adipocyte area (24%) with higher serum glucose (11%), leptin (85%), adiponectin (1.4-fold increase), total triiodothyronine (71%), free thyroxine (57%), TSH (36%), triglycerides (65%), VLDL cholesterol (+66%), and HDL cholesterol (91%) levels and lower corticosteronemia (41%) and adrenal catecholamine content (57%). Our present findings suggest that tobacco SE to both dams and their pups during lactation causes malnutrition in early life that programs for obesity and hormonal and metabolic disturbances in adulthood, only if the pups are submitted to the same smoke environment as the mother.
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Comparative Study
DPP-4 inhibitors improve cognition and brain mitochondrial function of insulin-resistant rats.
Recent evidence has demonstrated that insulin resistance is related to the development of type 2 diabetes mellitus. Our previous study found that high-fat diet (HFD) consumption caused not only peripheral and brain insulin resistance but also brain mitochondrial dysfunction and cognitive impairment. Vildagliptin and sitagliptin, dipeptidyl-peptidase-4 inhibitors, are recently developed anti-diabetic drugs. ⋯ We demonstrated that both drugs significantly improved the metabolic parameters and decreased circulating and brain oxidative stress levels in HFD-induced insulin-resistant rats. In addition, both drugs completely prevented brain and hippocampal mitochondrial dysfunction and equally improved the learning behaviors impaired by the HFD. Our findings suggest that the inhibition of dipeptidyl-peptidase-4 enzymes with vildagliptin or sitagliptin in insulin-resistant rats not only increases peripheral insulin sensitivity but also decreases brain dysfunction.