Maternal intake of high fat diet (HFD) increases risk for obesity and metabolic disorders in offspring. Developmental programming of taste preference is a potential mechanism by which this occurs. Whether maternal HFD during pregnancy, lactation, or both, imposes greater risks for altered taste preferences in adult offspring remains a question, and in turn, was investigated in the present study. Four groups of offspring were generated based on maternal HFD access: (1) HFD during pregnancy and lactation (HFD); (2) HFD during pregnancy (HFD-pregnancy); (3) HFD during lactation (HFD-lactation); and (4) normal diet (ND) during pregnancy and lactation (ND). Adult offspring 70 days of age underwent sensory and motivational taste preference testing with various concentrations of sucrose and Intralipid solutions using brief-access automated gustometers (Davis-rigs) and 24 h two-bottle choice tests, respectively. To control for post-gestational diet effects, offspring in all experimental groups were weaned on ND, and did not differ in body weight or glucose tolerance at the time of testing. Offspring exposed to maternal HFD showed increased sensory taste responses for 0.3, 0.6, 1.2 M sucrose solutions in HFD and 0.6 M in HFD-pregnancy groups, compared to animals exposed to ND. Similar effects were noted for lower concentrations of Intralipid in HFD (0.05, 0.10%) and HFD-pregnancy (0.05, 0.10, 0.5%) groups. The HFD-lactation group showed an opposite, diminished responsiveness for sucrose at the highest concentrations (0.9, 1.2, 1.5 M), but not for Intralipid, compared to ND animals. Extended-access two-bottle tests did not reveal major difference across the groups. Our study shows that maternal HFD during pregnancy and lactation has markedly different effects on preferences for palatable sweet and fatty solutions in adult offspring and suggests that such developmental programing may primarily affect gustatory mechanisms. Future studies are warranted for determining the impact of taste changes on development of obesity and metabolic disorders in a “real” food environment with food choices available, as well as to identify specific underlying mechanisms.

The term “high-risk pregnancy” describes a pregnancy at increased risk for complications due to various maternal or fetal medical, surgical, and/or anatomic issues. In order to best protect the pregnant patient and the fetus, frequent prenatal visits and monitoring are often recommended. Unfortunately, some patients are unable to attend these appointments for various reasons. Moreover, it has been documented that patients from ethnically and racially diverse backgrounds are more likely to miss medical appointments than are Caucasian patients. For instance, a case-control study retrospectively identified the race/ethnicity of patients who no-showed for mammography visits in 2018. Women who no-showed were more likely to be African American than patients who kept their appointments, with an odds ratio of 2.64 (4). Several other studies from several other primary care and specialty disciplines have shown similar results. However, the current research on high-risk obstetric no-shows has focused primarily on why patients miss their appointments rather than which patients are missing appointments. This is an area of opportunity for further research. Given disparities in health outcomes among underrepresented racial/ethnic groups and the importance of prenatal care, especially in high-risk populations, targeted attempts to increase patient participation in prenatal care may improve maternal and infant morbidity/mortality in these populations.