High dietary fat feeding during perinatal development of rats alters hepatic drug metabolism of progeny.

The objective of this study was to determine whether feeding high dietary fat, during pregnancy and lactation of Sprague-Dawley rats, can modulate hepatic drug-metabolizing enzymes of the offspring during postnatal development. Time-pregnant rats were pair-fed isocalorically 20% (experimental) or 5% (control) corn oil diets from day 10 of gestation until weaning. After weaning, litters from both groups were fed 5% corn oil diet until sacrificed. Offsprings were sacrificed at weaning (23 days), puberty (45 days) and at adult stage (100 days). Feeding diet containing 20% corn oil to dams, resulted in significant increases in liver microsomal cytochrome P-450, b5 contents and aminopyrine N-demethylase activity of the male offspring at weaning, puberty and adult stage of life. A similar but less marked trend was also observed in the female offspring. Thus, it appears that the high dietary fat exposure during perinatal development may result in significant alterations in hepatic drug-metabolizing enzyme activities of the progeny.