Exercise enhances placental angiogenesis of obese maternal mice

Abstract

Placenta is highly vascularized, which is critically for its function in nutrient transportation. Maternal obesity reduces placental vascularization, thus, negatively affecting fetal development and predisposing offspring to adult diseases. Physical activities have been reported to induce angiogenesis in muscle, and we hypothesized that exercise during pregnancy enhances placental vascularization, which prevents negative changes in placental blood vessel density due to maternal obesity.PURPOSETo examine the effects of maternal exercise on placental angiogenesis in high fat diet (HFD)‐induced obese mothers.METHODSFemale C57BL/6J mice were randomly assigned into four groups: control (CON), exercise (EX), HFD, and HFD with exercise (HFDEX). Mice were fed either a control diet containing 10 kcal% from fat, or a high fat diet containing 60 kcal% from fat for 8 weeks before mating. After mating, exercise intervention was performed during gestation every morning for 60 min at moderate intensity including warming up and cooling down. Maternal mice were euthanized, and placenta and fetuses were collected at embryonic day 18.5 (E18.5). Statistical difference was analyzed using student's t‐test and/or one‐way analysis of variance (ANOVA).RESULTSExercise intervention during gestation reduced body weight (P < 0.05) for both CON and HFD maternal mice, but fasting blood glucose level was only reduced (P < 0.001) in HFDEX group. There was no difference in food intake among groups. The average weight of fetuses was heavier (P < 0.001) in HFD than CON and HFDEX, while no difference among CON, CONEX, and HFDEX. The placental weight was higher in both exercise groups compared to no‐exercise groups. The mRNA expression of vasculogenic markers, Vegfa, Vegfr1, Fgf2, Fgfr2, Hif1a, Ccn1, and Gcm1, was reduced in HFD placenta compared to CON, which was recovered due to exercise. In addition, compared with CON, the blood vessel density was lower in HFD group (P < 0.01) but increased (P < 0.01) in HFDEX group.CONCLUSIONSMaternal obesity impaired placental angiogenesis, which was recovered due to exercise, suggesting that exercise during pregnancy is particularly important for obese mothers in order to improve placental vascular development and function, thus offspring health.Support or Funding InformationSupported by NIH Grant R01HD067449.This abstract is from the Experimental Biology 2019 Meeting. There is no full text article associated with this abstract published in The FASEB Journal.