Prepuberty is a window period for curcumin to prevent obesity in postnatal overfed rats.

BACKGROUND: Overnutrition in early life increases the risk of obesity and metabolic diseases. We investigated the effects and the window period of a curcumin (CUR) diet on postnatal overfed rats.

METHODS: Male rats aged 3 days were randomly divided into normal litters (NL, 10 pups/litter) and small litters (SL, 3 pups/litter). After weaning (Week 3, W3), NL rats were fed a normal diet (NL) and SL rats were fed a normal diet (SL) or 2% CUR diet from weaning (W3) (SL-CURW13 ), beginning of puberty (W6) (SL-CURW16 ), or end of puberty (W8) (SL-CURW18 ) for 10 weeks.

RESULTS: Body weight, glucose intolerance and hyperlipidemia in the SL rats were higher than in the NL rats, especially after puberty. After the CUR intervention, SL-CURW13 and SL-CURW16 rats showed lower body weight gain, adipose tissue weight and mRNA level of C/EBPα in SAT, along with higher mRNA levels of β-catenin. There was no difference between SL and SL-CURW18 rats. Glucose tolerance, serum lipids and hepatic lipids recovered to normal in the SL-CURW13 rats, but only partially in the SL-CURW16 and SL-CURW18 rats.

CONCLUSION: Prepuberty is a window period for CUR intervention to improve programmed outcomes in postnatal overfed rats.

IMPACT: Overnutrition during the first 1000 days of life has persistent negative effects on metabolism. Strategies should be taken to prevent overnutrition in early life to reduce the risk of obesity and metabolic disease in later life. A small-litter rat model was utilized to simulate early-life overnutrition in humans. We investigated the different effects and critical period for curcumin intervention on postnatal overfed rats. Dietary curcumin intervention before puberty could effectively transform nutritional programming to reduce obesity and metabolic disorders caused by early-life overnutrition, and an earlier intervention might predict a better outcome.