Table 2. Baseline characteristics, hypothalamic mRNA gene expression and overall promoter methylation in three-week-old chickens.

Variables	Prenatally NaCl-treated group	Prenatally glucose-treated group	p-value
Sex ratio (M/F in %)	28/72	36/64	0.532*
Age at sacrifice (days)	21.1 ± 0.2 (39)	21.4 ± 0.2 (61)	0.285
Body weight development (g)
day 1	41.3 ± 0.7 (39)	42.7 ± 0.6 (61)	0.133
day 7	69.3 ± 1.1 (39)	67.7 ± 1.3 (61)	0.385
day 14	142.2 ± 2.5 (39)	137.6 ± 2.4 (61)	0.201
day of sacrifice	239.7 ± 4.1 (39)	238.3 ± 5.1 (61)	0.865
Body fat content at day of sacrifice (%)	8.2 ± 0.2 (15)	7.8 ± 0.2 (23)	0.200
Blood glucose at day of sacrifice (mmol/l)	9.3 ± 0.3 (15)	8.8 ± 0.2 (32)	0.253
Hypothalamic mRNA gene expression (arbitrary units)
INSR	36.6 ± 3.1 (20)	25.6 ± 2.0 (25)	0.006
LEPR	0.45 ± 0.04 (20)	0.33 ± 0.02 (25)	0.046
GLUT1	427.6 ± 75.0 (20)	224.3 ± 28.6 (25)	0.006
GLUT3	337.5 ± 46.7 (20)	229.1 ± 29.4 (25)	0.047
Hypothalamic promoter region methylation (%)
INSR	71.4 ± 0.9 (22)	70.9 ± 1.0 (26)	0.673
LEPR	0.7 ± 0.1 (19)	0.6 ± 0.1 (20)	0.432
GLUT1	11.9 ± 0.3 (22)	10.4 ± 0.6 (26)	0.100
GLUT3	1.4 ± 0.1 (20)	1.6 ± 0.1 (25)	0.187

Values are expressed as means ± SEM. Number of animals in parenthesis.

p-values were calculated using Student’s t-test or Mann-Whitney U-test when appropriate.

*chi-square test

Abbreviations: GLUT, glucose transporter; INSR, insulin receptor, LEPR, leptin receptor; M/F, males/females