Effect of a high-fat diet on diabetic mother rats and their offspring through three generations.

Pregnant diabetic Wistar rats were fed a high-fat diet starting at the first gestational day. The effect of the high-fat diet on the growth of the female, her offspring, and the offspring's offspring was studied. Pregnant rats (first generation) were divided into the Diabetic streptozotocin-induced group and the control group. Diabetic streptozotocin-induced rats and control rats were fed either a control diet (5% fat in diet) or high-fat diet (32% fat in diet), and observed up to the third generation. In each generation, after weaning, the pups were fed the respective diet. The fat content was mainly animal lard. Diabetic rats fed the high-fat diet were infertile, and the pregnant first-generation and diabetic rats fed the control diet had a stillbirth rate of 27.5 +/- 22.0% (mean +/- SE). In the first generation, the diabetic rats fed the control diet had a significantly lower body weight increase during the pregnancy than the control rats fed the control diet. The second-generation diabetic rats fed the control diet had a high blood glucose level at birth, and their triglyceride level was higher than that in the other two groups. The third-generation diabetic rats fed the control diet had a triglyceride level higher than that of control rats. Delivery was most difficult in diabetic rats fed the high-fat diet. Pups of diabetic rats fed the control diet had growth retardation and increased blood glucose levels. We conclude that when the mother rat had diabetes, the next generation was also affected.