Pigs' eating habits may provide vital clues to obesity disorders
Piglets whose mothers get their heads into the trough once too often might help dieticians predict which mothers will give birth to children at risk of developing metabolic syndrome.
As part of a study to decode the theory of foetal programming, which says that what a mother eats in pregnancy makes children susceptible to dietary disease and may influence food choices in later life, researchers at Aarhus University fed two groups of sows different protein levels during gestation.
They then measured leptin - the protein that helps reduce appetite - and the angiotensin converting enzyme (ACE), which narrows blood vessels and increases blood pressure, in piglets four days before birth.
The study will now look at offspring born to mothers on the same feeding regime and allowed to grow to 150 days, with one group weaned on high protein and another on a low protein diet. The trials are due to be completed in the autumn. If they succeed in finding markers for foetal programming by way of blood or tissue sampling, clinical studies in humans could follow.
"These markers could perhaps be used by dieticians to identify people who have high risk of developing diseases to give advice about eating," said Prof Niels Oksbjerg, who heads muscle biology and meat quality research at Aarhus.
In addition, researchers will try to establish whether some sows bear litters that are genetically resistant to foetal programming.
