Maternal exercise is associated with more oxidative skeletal muscle and beige adipose tissue phenotypes and improved early post-weaning glucose tolerance in rat offspring

The increasing prevalence of childhood obesity has highlighted the need for effective preventive strategies during early life. Maternal exercise is a promising approach to improve offspring metabolic health; however, whether these benefits are established during the peri-weaning period and how they are influenced by the postnatal environment remain unclear. This study investigated whether maternal voluntary exercise induces early metabolic programming in male offspring and examined skeletal muscle and adipose tissue adaptations associated with improved glucose metabolism. Female Wistar rats were assigned to sedentary or voluntary wheel running conditions before and during gestation. Male offspring were assessed at PD35 using a glucose tolerance test and histological analyses of skeletal muscle and adipose tissue. A subset of offspring was fed a high-fat diet from weaning to evaluate the influence of the postnatal nutritional environment. Offspring from exercised dams exhibited improved glucose tolerance, accompanied by oxidative remodeling of skeletal muscle, maintenance of beige characteristics in subcutaneous adipose tissue, and reduced visceral adiposity. The improvement in glucose tolerance was attenuated by high-fat feeding after weaning. Maternal exercise therefore may contribute to early metabolic programming that improves glucose tolerance in offspring, although the resulting metabolic phenotype remains plastic and is substantially influenced by the post-weaning nutritional environment.