Maternal obesity (MO) predisposes offspring to obesity and metabolic disorders but little is known about the contribution of offspring brown adipose tissue (BAT). We find that MO impairs fetal BAT development, which persistently suppresses BAT thermogenesis and primes female offspring to metabolic dysfunction. In fetal BAT, MO enhances expression of Dio3, which encodes deiodinase 3 (D3) to catabolize triiodothyronine (T3), while a maternally imprinted long noncoding RNA, Dio3 antisense RNA (Dio3os), is inhibited, leading to intracellular T3 deficiency and suppression of BAT development. Gain and loss of function shows Dio3os reduces D3 content and enhances BAT thermogenesis, rendering female offspring resistant to high fat diet-induced obesity. Attributing to Dio3os inactivation, its promoter has higher DNA methylation in obese dam oocytes which persists in fetal and adult BAT, uncovering an oocyte origin of intergenerational obesity. Overall, our data uncover key features of Dio3os activation in BAT to prevent intergenerational obesity and metabolic dysfunctions.
© 2021. The Author(s).