Mom's High-Fat Diet May Impact Baby's Heart

Mom's high-fat diet could actually change a newborn's heart. Scientists have found that baby rats whose mothers were fed a high-fat diet had larger than normal hearts with fewer taste receptors for bitter flavors.

In this latest study, the researchers wanted to see what happened to newborns whose mothers ate a fatty diet. That's why they fed rats a high-fat diet including pies, cakes, biscuits and dim sims for six weeks before mating and then throughout gestation and lactation. The offspring of these rats were then compared to the offspring of rats that were fed a regular diet.

"We know that a range of maternal factors including diet can influence fetal development, but this is the first study to examine changes in the expression of taste receptors in the heart," said Margaret Morris, one of the researchers, in a news release. "This may be an important finding linking taste preferences or nutrient availability and cardiovascular health."

The researchers found that the offspring of obese rats had larger hearts with fewer angiotensin II and beta-adrenoreceptors. Both of these are important in the regulation of blood pressure and cardiac activity. It's possible that the researchers saw these differences because their cardiovascular systems were overactive.

The findings reveal a bit more about the effects that a mother eating a high-fat diet can have on a newborn. The researchers believe that the receptors may be linked to regulation of appetite and nutrient detection, which could be important to offspring later in life.

The findings are published in the journal Nutrition, Metabolism and Cardiovascular Diseases.

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