Previous research showed a beneficial programming effect of replacting glucose in the post-weaning diet with galactose on later life adiposity. Here, we studied the direct effect of the diets in the postweaning phase in female mice. In this study, female mice were fed a glucose diet (32 en% glucose; GLU) or a glucose+galactose diet (16 en% glucose and 16 en% galactose; GLU+GAL) postweaning for three weeks, from postnatal day (PN) 21 till PN42. We observed lower circulating insulin levels and lower hepatic triglyceride levels in the females on the GLU+GAL diet. The body weight, fat mass, liver weight and liver glycogen content did not differ between the groups. We next studied hepatic gene expression profiles, because of the altered hepatic triglyceride levels and since the liver is considered the primary site of galactose metabolism. However, detailed analyses including pathway analysis, showed mainly inflammation being reduced by the GLU+GAL treatment. This was confirmed by qPCR of liver tissues and focussed serum protein analysis
