Impaired prolactin actions mediate altered offspring metabolism induced by maternal high‐fat feeding during lactation

What is it about?

Maternal milk contains all the necessary factors for healthy infant growth. However, obesity or an unhealthy maternal diet damage lactation and alter milk composition, resulting in adverse consequences for the infant's health. Our work, shows that an obesogenic diet during lactation in rats interferes with the beneficial effects of the hormone prolactin both in mothers and in their offspring by reducing the prolactin receptors in the mammary gland. Consumption of an obesogenic diet by lactating mothers leads to reduced milk production and lower prolactin levels in milk along with metabolic alterations in the offspring such as obesity, fatty liver and insulin resistance. Prolactin treatment to mothers or pups ameliorates these adverse events. These findings demonstrate a previously unidentified beneficial role of maternal prolactin on offspring metabolism that involves both, an indirect action of prolactin on the mammary gland and a direct effect of prolactin present in milk on the nursing young. Both effects are interfered by obesogenic diet feeding to the mothers, which leads to adverse metabolic consequences in the neonates. These findings suggest that medications or dietary strategies that elevate PRL circulating levels could be used in obese nursing mothers to improve their lactation outcomes and the metabolic health of their infants.

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