Maternal use of flaxseed oil during pregnancy and lactation prevents morphological alterations in pancreas of female offspring from rat dams with experimental diabetes

Key Findings:

Women with gestational diabetes, as well as women with pregestational diabetes (type 1 or type 2), have high-risk pregnancies, and their children show increased morbidity and mortality in the perinatal period. In this study, female offspring of diabetic Wistar rats with severe hyperglycaemia during pregnancy and lactation had low birthweight and low weight at weaning, and changes in pancreatic structure when adults. Maternal use of flaxseed oil had beneficial effects in the female offspring from diabetic mothers including reduced hypertrophy and improving pancreatic islet b-cell expression.  The females of the flaxseed oil fed diabetic mothers, were lighter at weaning than the control but matche their weights by their 70th day, recovering its growth curve, and consumed the same amount of food, indicating a possible catch-up postweaning.  Flaxseed oil did not lead to an increased number of islets, and prevented pancreatic islet hypertrophy, as the diameters of the islets were similar to the CG at 180 days. This study showed that the adverse pancreatic remodelling, characteristic of rats from mothers with severe hyperglycaemia, was prevented by maternal use of flaxseed oil during pregnancy and lactation. These effects were associated with enhanced expression of insulin and reduced pancreatic islet hypertrophy in the female offspring.

ABSTRACT:

Nutritional recommendations have promoted the increased need to consume n-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids. Flaxseed is the richest dietary source of n-3 fatty acids among plant sources and is widely used for its edible oil. This study aimed to investigate whether maternal use of flaxseed oil has effects on pancreas morphology in the female offspring of diabetic mothers. Female Wistar rats (n = 12) were induced into diabetes by a high-fat diet and low dose of streptozotocin. After confirmation of the diabetes, rats were mated, and once pregnancy was confirmed, they were allocated into three groups (n = 6): high-fat group (HG); flaxseed oil group (FOG); and control group (CG) (non-diabetic rats). At weaning, female offspring (n = 6/group) received standard chow diet. The animals were euthanized at 180 days. Pancreas was collected for histomorphometric and immunohistochemistry analysis. HG showed hypertrophy of pancreatic islets (P < 0.0001), whereas FOG offspring had islets with smaller diameters compared to HG (P < 0.0001). HG offspring showed higher percentage of larger (P = 0.0061) and lower percentage of smaller islets (P = 0.0036). HG showed lower islet insulin immunodensity at 180 days (P < 0.0001), whereas FOG was similar to CG (P < 0.0001). Flaxseed oil reduced the damage caused by maternal hyperglycaemia, promoting normal pancreas histomorphometry and b-cell mass in female offspring. (Authors abstract)