Fig. 2.

The possible mechanisms supporting the development of obesity/metabolic syndrome in the SL model. It is postulated that the altered hormonal levels observed during the suckling period ‘malprogram’ the energy homeostatic mechanism in the SL (overnourished) rats resulting in hyperphagia and increased body weight gains in the post-weaning period and development of obesity and metabolic syndrome in adulthood. The thickness of arrows outside the boxes indicates the relative contributions to metabolic programming. The shorter arrows in the boxes indicate the direction of the changes.