The Sex Dependent and Independent Effects of Dietary Whey Proteins Are Passed from the Mother to the Offspring.

Scope: The study assesses the metabolic impact of dietary whey proteins across generations.

Method and results: Virgin females are fed 20% energy whey proteins with 70% energy carbohydrates, which reduces body weight gain and visceral adipose compared to controls fed dietary casein. In contrast, the males are unresponsive. The effect is accentuated in reproductive females that also have reduced plasma levels of glucose. The responsive females have increased cecal levels of pyruvic and lactic acid, suggesting a greater catabolism of carbohydrates in the gut. While the male and female offspring born to mothers on whey proteins continue to reduce body weight gain, the female offspring further decreases the visceral and subcutaneous tissues and increases the gut capacity to breakdown dietary carbohydrates and proteins, whereas the male offspring are able to only decrease the visceral and increase protein catabolism in the gut. The ileum of male mice responded by reducing the gene expression for fibroblast growth factor 15 and increasing the expression of chymotrypsinogen B1.

Conclusion: The effect of whey proteins on growth can be passed from the mother to the offspring without a sex preference, whereas the transmission of gut activity and adiposity are dependent on the sex of the offspring.