Nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) shows a developmental origin and is impacted in utero. A study evaluated if maternal diet intervention before pregnancy would be beneficial to reduce the risk of offspring NAFLD. 

Female mice were either fed a normal-fat diet (NF group), or a high-fat diet for 12 weeks, which was followed throughout pregnancy and lactation (HF group), or switched from HF-to-NF diet 1 week (H1N group), or 9 weeks (H9N group) prior to pregnancy. 

The following observations were made-

• The H1N and HF, but not the H9N offspring, displayed more severe hepatic steatosis and glucose intolerance than the NF offspring. 
• More specifically, H1N offspring showed an abnormal blood lipid panel and HF and H1N offspring showed abnormal hepatic free fatty acid composition, while the H9N offspring displayed both at normal levels. 
• These physiological changes were linked with desensitized hepatic insulin/AKT signaling, augmented expression of genes and proteins for de novo lipogenesis and cholesterol synthesis, reduced expression of genes and proteins for fatty acid oxidation, boosted Pcsk9 expression, and hypoactivation of 5′ AMP-activated protein kinase (AMPK) signaling in the HF and H1N offspring. 
• However, H9N offspring completely or partially saved these effects. 

Thus early maternal diet intervention can effectively reduce the risk of offspring NAFLD provoked by maternal HF diet. Hence effective diet intervention strategies and policies can be developed for preventing obesity and NAFLD to promote optimal health outcomes for mothers and children.

SOURCE- Zhou Y, Peng H, Xu H. et al. Maternal diet intervention before pregnancy primes offspring lipid metabolism in liver. Lab Invest, 2020; 100: 553–569. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41374-019-0344-4