Sex specific gene expression differences in mouse pups from obese dams

Maternal obesity is increasingly common and negatively impact offspring health. Children born to mothers with obesity are at higher risk of developing diseases associated with abnormalities within the hematopoietic system such as atypical immune profiles, hematopoiesis, and metabolic diseases such as type 2 diabetes. Interestingly, disease risks are often dependent on the offspring’s sex, suggesting sex-specific reprogramming effect of maternal obesity on offspring hematopoietic stem and progenitor cell (HSPC) function. However, the impact of maternal obesity exposure on offspring HSPC function is largely unknown, and the capability of HSPC to regulate offspring metabolic health has not been studied. Here we examined differential transcriptomes of hematopoietic stem and progenitor cells from male and female pups (postnatal day 21) from dams given western diet or control diet. RNA-seq revealed inflammatory gene pathways in female MatOb offspring that potentially protect HSPC function.