Bone Marrow Mesenchymal Stem Cells of the Intrauterine Growth Restricted Rat Offspring Exhibit Enhanced Adipogenic Phenotype

OBJECTIVE: Although intrauterine nutritional stress is known to result in offspring obesity and metabolic phenotype, the underlying cellular/molecular mechanisms remain incompletely understood.We tested the hypothesis that compared to the controls, the bone marrow-derived mesenchymal stem cells (BMSCs) of the intrauterine growth restricted (IUGR) offspring exhibit to a more adipogenic phenotype. METHODS: A well-established rat model of maternal food restriction (MFR), i.e., 50% global caloric restriction during the later-half of pregnancy and ad libitum diet following birth that is known to result in an obese offspring with a metabolic phenotype was used. BMSCs at 3 weeks of age were isolated, and then molecularly and functionally profiled. RESULTS: BMSCs of the intrauterine nutritionally-restricted offspring demonstrated an increased proliferation and an enhanced adipogenic molecular profile at miRNA, mRNA and protein levels, with an overall up-regulated PPARγ (miR-30d, miR-103, PPARγ, C/EPBα, ADRP, LPL, SREBP1), but down-regulated Wnt (LRP5, LEF-1, β-catenin, ZNF521 and RUNX2) signaling profile. Following adipogenic induction, compared to the control BMSCs, the already up-regulated adipogenic profile of the MFR BMSCs, showed a further increased adipogenic response. CONCLUSIONS: Markedly enhanced adipogenic molecular profile and increased cell proliferation of MFR BMSCs suggest a possible novel cellular/mechanistic link between the intrauterine nutritional stress and offspring metabolic phenotype including obesity, providing new potential predictive and therapeutic targets against these conditions in the IUGR offspring.