Impact of excess gestational and post-weaning energy intake on femoral artery vascular function of swine offspring
Abstract
The genesis of disease development can be linked to the intrauterine environment, and gestational nutrition is known to play a significant role in the future vascular health of the offspring. The aim of this examination was to determine the impact of excessive gestational and post-weaning energy intake on offspring vascular function and gene expression associated with the nitric oxide (NO) pathway. Duroc x Landrace gilts (n=16) were assigned to either a high energy (HE) providing 10,144 Kcal/day (n=8) or normal energy (NE) providing 6721 Kcal/day (n = 8) diet throughout pregnancy. Male and female piglets from each sow were randomly assigned within sex to receive either a HE diet or NE diet. At 3 months of age the femoral artery was harvested from male and female offspring, representing each group of maternal and postnatal diet (n=47). Endothelial-dependent and -independent vasorelaxation were measured using wire-myography and increasing concentration of bradykinin (BK) and sodium nitroprusside (SNP), respectively. Quantitative real time-polymerase chain reaction was used to analyze the expression of eNOS, GUCY1A3, and GUCY1B3. Both BK and SNP induced vasorelaxation were significantly reduced in the femoral arteries of gestational HE offspring compared to gestational NE offspring. However, there was no effect for the post-weaning diet on BK and SNP induced vasorelaxation. No significant differences were observed in the gene expression of either eNOS or GUCY1A3 between the offspring. In conclusion, these findings suggest that a HE gestational diet can play a critical role in the development of offspring vascular function, predisposing them to vascular dysfunction. This dysfunction may lead to atherosclerotic disease development later in life. Furthermore, these results suggest that the reduced endothelium-dependent and -independent vasorelaxation responses were not due to gene expression differences of eNOS or GUCY1A3.
Degree
M.S.
Advisors
Newcomer, Purdue University.
Subject Area
Animal Diseases|Health sciences
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