Non-alcoholic Fatty pancreas disease pathogenesis: a role fordevelopmental programming and altered circadian rhythms.

OBJECTIVES: Emerging evidence suggests that maternal obesity (MO) predisposesoffspring to obesity and the recently described non-alcoholic fatty pancreasdisease (NAFPD) but involved mechanisms remain unclear. Using apathophysiologically relevant murine model, we here investigated a role for thebiological clock - molecular core circadian genes (CCG) in the generation ofNAFPD.DESIGN: Female C57BL6 mice were fed an obesogenic diet (OD) or standard chow (SC)for 6 weeks, prior to pregnancy and throughout gestation and lactation: resultingoffspring were subsequently weaned onto either OD (Ob_Ob and Con_Ob) or standard chow (Ob_Con and Con_Con) for 6 months. Biochemical, pro-inflammatory andpro-fibrogenic markers associated with NAFPD were then evaluated and CCG mRNAexpression in the pancreas determined.RESULTS: Offspring of obese dams weaned on to OD (Ob_Ob) had significantlyincreased (p≤0.05): bodyweight, pancreatic triglycerides, macrovesicularpancreatic fatty-infiltration, and pancreatic mRNA expression of TNF-α, IL-6,α-SMA, TGF-β and increased collagen compared to offspring of control dams weaned on to control chow (Con_Con). Analyses of CCG expression demonstrated a phaseshift in CLOCK (-4.818, p<0.01), REV-ERB-α (-1.4,p<0.05) and Per2 (3.27,p<0.05)in association with decreased amplitude in BMAL-1 (-0.914,p<0.05) and PER2(1.18,p<0.005) in Ob_Ob compared to Con_Con. 2-way ANOVA revealed significantinteraction between MO and post-weaning OD in expression of CLOCK (p<0.005), PER1(p<0.005) and PER2 (p<0.05) whilst MO alone influenced the observed rhythmicvariance in expression of all 5 measured CCG.CONCLUSIONS: Fetal and neonatal exposure to a maternal obesogenic environmentinteracts with a post-natal hyper-calorific environment to induce offspring NAFPDthrough mechanisms involving perturbations in CCG expression.