Background Prenatal and postnatal insults can induce a physiological state that leaves offspring later in life vulnerable to subsequent challenges (stressors) eliciting cardiometabolic diseases including hypertension. In this study, we investigated whether maternal angiotensin II-induced hypertension in rats sensitizes postweaning high-fat diet (HFD)-elicited hypertensive response and whether this is associated with autonomic dysfunction and altered central mechanisms controlling sympathetic tone in offspring. Methods and Results When eating a low-lard-fat diet, basal mean arterial pressure of male offspring of normotensive or hypertensive dams were comparable. However, HFD feeding significantly increased mean arterial pressure in offspring of normotensive and hypertensive dams, but the elevated mean arterial pressure induced by HFD was greater in offspring of hypertensive dams, which was accompanied by greater sympathetic tone and enhanced pressor responses to centrally administrated angiotensin II or leptin. HFD feeding also produced comparable elevations in cardiac sympathetic activity and plasma levels of angiotensin II, interleukin-6, and leptin in offspring of normotensive and hypertensive dams. Reverse transcriptase polymerase chain reaction analyses in key forebrain regions implicated in the control of sympathetic tone and blood pressure indicated that HFD feeding led to greater increases in mRNA expression of leptin, several components of the renin-angiotensin system and proinflammatory cytokines in offspring of hypertensive dams when compared with offspring of normotensive dams. Conclusions The results indicate that maternal hypertension sensitized male adult offspring to HFD-induced hypertension. Increased expression of renin-angiotensin system components and proinflammatory cytokines, elevated brain reactivity to pressor stimuli, and augmented sympathetic drive to the cardiovascular system likely contributed.
Keywords: autonomic function; blood pressure; central nervous system; high‐fat diet; maternal gestational hypertension.