The aim of this study was to review the literature on the effects of fetal programming in the inflammatory response in Wistar rats. A search was performed in the following databases: PubMed, MEDLINE, PUBMED, SCIENCE DIRECT, SCOPUS, LILACS, Springer Link. The main search terms were malnutrition and inflammation in Portuguese and in English. Original articles were included involving albino rats and review articles were excluded involving humans or animals other than rats. Articles that were related to malnutrition which was not intrauterine and did not involve the concept of fetal programming were also excluded. Those items found in more than one database were counted only once. Sixteen articles were found in PUBMED, 16 in SCOPUS, 4 in MEDLINE, 341 in SCIENCE DIRECT, 8 in SciELO, 1 in LILACS and 77 in SPRINGERLINK totalling 463 articles from which 4 were selected for analysis after applying inclusion and exclusion criteria. Fetal programming seems to interfere with the inflammatory response in the adult offspring of Wistar rats, but its mechanisms remain uncertain.