The recent pandemic prevalence of obesity, not only in adults but also in children, together with the rising awareness of the burden of this condition on population health and health costs have considerably contributed to intensify our efforts to understand the consequences of high-fat feeding behavior on obesity, which is now an important biochemical, biomolecular and neurobiological research area.
Maternal and childhood nutrition, in particular the intake of high-fat and carbohydrate-rich foods, are among the critical high-risk factors for adult obesity. The intake of fat robustly affects the development of insulin resistance in skeletal muscle, liver and adipose tissue, in which energy fluxes and lipid partitioning among tissues and cell types appear to be central nodes. This situation highlights the need for more elegant and sophisticated techniques and methodologies to study lipid metabolism and increase the accuracy of our conclusions, especially in humans. Current research focuses also on the two main systems mediating energy balance: the homeostatic system responsive to nutrient sensing and energy stores including brain stem and hypothalamic nuclei and the ‘hedonic' system, which refers to the involvement of cognitive, reward and emotional factors and their respective modulating pathways, in particular the mesocorticolimbic dopaminergic system. Hypothalamic and mesocorticolimbic dopamine system plasticity during the early period of development has a major role in the programming of metabolism and appetite in the offspring.
The Université Laval Research Chair in Obesity organized in November 2011 its 14th annual international symposium, which focused on the neurobiological, metabolic and behavioral consequences of high-fat feeding. The meeting was divided into two sessions and involved a total of eight speakers among the most renowned researchers in the field of obesity, epigenetics and metabolism.
The present proceedings therefore cover the highlights of the 14th symposium chaired by Denis Richard. The morning session of the meeting, chaired by Claire-Dominique Walker, addressed aspects related to the ‘development, brain plasticity and reward' associated with feeding a high-fat diet. The afternoon session, chaired by Frédéric Picard, explored aspects related to ‘inflammation, ectopic fat and lipid metabolism' associated with high-fat feeding.
In the morning session, Kevin Grove (Beaverton, OR, USA) covered the impact of maternal high-fat diet consumption on neural development and behavior of the offspring. Kjersti Aagaard (Houston, TX, USA) presented the maternal diet as a modulator for epigenomic regulation during development in nonhuman primates and humans. Sébastien Bouret (Los Angeles, CA, USA) reported on the critical periods and windows of opportunity for nutritional programming of hypothalamic development. Teresa Reyes (Philadelphia, PA, USA) presented a comprehensive description of the effects of high-fat diet on the dopamine and opioid systems across development.
In the afternoon session, Darrel Neufer (Greenville, NC, USA) explained the mechanisms of high-fat load on insulin resistance in skeletal muscle. André Carpentier (Sherbrooke, QC, USA) emphasized the metabolic inflexibility of white and brown adipose tissues in abnormal fatty acid partitioning of type 2 diabetes. Elizabeth Parks (Dallas, TX, USA) focused on the practical research strategies for tracing dietary fat. Finally, Michael Jensen (Rochester, MN, USA) summarized the clinical effects of high-fat meals and associated weight gain.
Altogether, the speakers and the Chairs, Claire-Dominique Walker (Montreal) and Frédéric Picard (Québec), presented a comprehensive review of the latest findings related to the deleterious affects of high-fat feeding.
The 14th symposium was held on 11 November 2011, at Auberge Saint-Antoine in Québec City, Canada. The scientific program committee for this symposium, which was chaired by Denis Richard (Canada), included Claire-Dominique Walker (Canada), Frédéric Picard (Canada) and André Carpentier (Canada). Paul Boisvert was the coordinator of the symposium logistics.
The Université Laval Research Chair in Obesity has organized so far, annually, 14 international symposiums entirely devoted to obesity research, since its creation in 1997. The first symposium of the series, entitled ‘The uncoupling proteins and obesity', was held in 1998.1 The second symposium, organized in 1999, was oriented toward ‘Recent advances in adipose tissue biology and their implications for obesity'.2 In 2000, the third symposium, entitled ‘The ponderostat: from behavior to neural substrates',3 focused on the mechanisms whereby energy balance is regulated. The fourth symposium, organized in November 2002 and entitled ‘Complications of obesity: the inflammatory link', summarized the latest most important findings in the mechanisms underlying the link between obesity and its complications such as diabetes and cardiovascular diseases.4 In 2003, the fifth symposium brought a comprehensive view on ‘The role of gene regulation in obesity and its complications',5 and specifically on the regulation of PPARs, PGC-1, FOXO1 and SIR2. In 2004, the sixth symposium focused on the understanding of ‘The endocannabinoid system and its role in energy homeostasis and abdominal obesity management'.6 The seventh symposium explored in 2005 the complexity of ‘The neurobiology of obesity'.7 Our eighth symposium organized in 2006 was dedicated to ‘AMP-activated protein kinase in obesity'.8 In 2007, for the 10th anniversary of the Merck Frosst/CIHR Research Chair in Obesity, a double program was held during 2 consecutive days.9 The first symposium focused on the ‘Gastrointestinal tract, obesity and diabetes'. The second one explored the concept of Childhood obesity: Biological/environmental determinants and preventative strategies. In 2008, for the 11th annual symposium series, the Research Chair in Obesity organized a program dedicated to the ‘reward system' which was called ‘Obesity in a modern world: when pleasure meets homeostasis'.10 In 2009, an advisory committee to the Chair recommended, 10 years after the symposium on ‘Recent advances in adipose tissue biology', to revisit this theme by organizing for the 12th annual symposium series, a program dedicated to the ‘Brown adipose tissue'.11 In October 2010, the 13th symposium focused on how ‘Bariatric/metabolic surgery influences the energy balance regulation'.12 For more details about previous symposia, please visit our website at http://obesity.ulaval.ca.
The mission of the Université Laval Research Chair in Obesity is to promote and support academic research and educational activities on the causes, complications, treatment and prevention of obesity. It is within our mission to make scientists, physicians, health professionals and general public aware of recent discoveries in the field of obesity. In this context, the purpose of our annual symposium is to summarize science-based evidence regarding an important topic related to recent advances in obesity and to propose novel directions in obesity research.
In closing, our gratitude goes to all the invited scientific experts, who not only delivered authoritative, comprehensive and stimulating presentations but also participated with enthusiasm and competence in all the activities of the symposium. We would like to thank Claire-Dominique Walker and Frédéric Picard, who competently chaired the meeting sessions for the symposium on ‘High-fat feeding: worse than once thought'. The production of this supplement was coordinated by Paul Boisvert. We would also like to acknowledge the contribution of the Centre de recherche de l'Institut universitaire de cardiologie et de pneumologie de Québec affiliated to the Université Laval, as well as Desjardins Sécurité Financière for their support to the symposium.
The authors declare no conflict of interest.
Footnotes
This article was published as part of a supplement funded with an unrestricted educational contribution from Desjardins Sécurité Financière.
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