| There are an increasing number of epidemiologic and animal studies which show that a range of maternal perturbations including maternal nutrient restriction in pregnancy, impair fetal development and impact offspring health. While it is well recognized that decreased food availability influences large segments of many developing countries, it is less well acknowledged that millions of American households live without food security. In addition, conditions such as hyperemesis gravidarum, anorexia nervosa and preeclampsia all may result in a sub-optimum intrauterine environment. The potential to compromise fetal nutrition is not therefore simply a third world problem. The present work evaluated the effects of global 50% maternal nutrient restriction (NR) during early to mid-gestation in sheep on cardio-renal development in the fetus at 0.5 and 0.9 of gestation and in 9 month old male offspring. Results showed that NR decreased renal nephron number at 0.9 gestation in male but not in females and persisted in male offspring (578,362 +/- 23,792 vs. 646,284 +/- 19,309; P<0.05) in whom hypertension developed. The changes observed in the fetus as a result of NR appear to precipitate hypertension in 9 month old offspring (mean aterial pressure; 89.0 +/- 6.6 vs. 73.4 +/- 1.6; P<0.05). These data show that the effects of in utero nutritional stress persist into postnatal life. They further suggest that compromised maternal nutrition may result in the generation of a hypertensive phenotype with increased susceptibility to heart and renal disease. |
