Associação entre o consumo de dieta hipercalórica e cafeína e suas implicações sobre a gestação em modelo murino

Abstract

The dietary pattern of human beings has changed over time, and nowadays consists of a high-calorie diet with an excess of fats and sugars. Many foods in this type of diet, such as coffee, chocolate, soft drinks, and energy drinks, have large amounts of caffeine. There is evidence that consumption of a high calorie diet and caffeine intake alone can compromise reproduction. However, little is known about the combined effect of these substances specifically on the gestational period. Thus, the objective of the present study was to evaluate the effects of chronic maternal consumption of a high calorie diet, associated with caffeine intake during pregnancy, on reproductive parameters, placental morphology and fetal biometrics in heterozygous mice. For this, we used female Swiss mice allocated into four experimental groups: 1) control normocaloric diet, without caffeine administration (CC); 2) control diet and supplementation of 120mg/kg/day of caffeine (C120); 3) hypercaloric diet without caffeine (TC); 4) hypercaloric diet and supplementation of 120mg/kg/day of caffeine (T120). The animals received the respective diets for six weeks and the caffeine supplementation was done for two weeks from the seventh week, when the females were mated and euthanized in the final gestational third (DG17.5). Blood samples were collected for biochemical parameter evaluations and the uteri were dissected for biometric and morphological evaluations of the conceptuses and their placentas. The results found point to a metabolic syndrome in animals that consumed the hypercaloric diet, which besides presenting obesity, showed hyperglycemia, dyslipidemia, and insulin resistance (P<0.05). The animals that consumed caffeine had higher levels of triglycerides and total cholesterol, as well as hyperglycemia (P<0.05). Moreover, the high calorie diet, caffeine and the association between both affected fetal development, reducing fetal weight and liver weight (P<0.05), and these findings were more severe in female fetuses. Such effects on fetal development were due to changes in the placentas, which besides being smaller and lighter in all treatments (P<0.05), showed structural changes in the maternal-fetal interface, with emphasis on the increase in the height of the interhemal membrane (P<0.05). It is worth mentioning that the consumption of the hypercaloric diet associated with caffeine was more deleterious on placental and fetal development than the consumption of these substances alone. Taken together, the findings of the present study demonstrate that the metabolic alterations resulting either from the consumption of a high calorie diet, or of caffeine, or the association of both, promote placental morphological alterations, compromising fetal development, especially in females, predisposing these individuals to future metabolic complications.