Transgenerational programming of hypertension by maternal food restriction during pregnancy

Abstract

As human food poverty often spans generations, the aim was to determine whether the hypertensive influence of maternal food restriction during pregnancy is amplified across generations. Control Wistar rat mothers were exposed to ad libitum food intake in utero and then had free access to food while pregnant (CM); food restricted mothers were exposed to food restriction (50% of the pregnant control rat ad libitum intake from day 1 of pregnancy until birth) in utero and then had free access to food while pregnant (FRM); double food restricted mothers were exposed to 50% food restriction in utero and then were fed 50% of ad libitum while pregnant (DFRM). Systolic blood pressures (BP) did not differ between FRM (120.4 ± 1.7, n = 8) and DFRM (118.9 ± 1.0, n = 6) but were significantly higher than CM prior to mating (113.5 ± 1.0 mmHg, n = 6, P < 0.05). At 9 weeks, the BP of male offspring from FRM (120.1 ± 1.9, n = 15) was significantly higher than that of CM (109.3 ± 1.7, n = 11, P < 0.001); the BP of DRFM offspring was higher still (135.7 ± 1.5 mmHg, n = 12, P < 0.01 vs FRM). There was no correlation between maternal and offspring BP (r = 0.26, P = 0.12), implying that the higher BP of the DFRM offspring was not due to higher maternal BP. These data show that the programming effects of maternal food restriction are amplified across generations. Funded by the Fetal Programming of Diseases Research Chair, King Saud University.