Latest epidemiological data suggests 1.5 billion adults worldwide are either overweight or obese. With increasing weight and obesity, adipocytes increase in size. The enlargement of adipocytes has been associated with low grade chronic inflammation via elevated adipokine secretion. Previous epidemiological studies in humans and experimental studies in animals have shown that during different periods of pregnancy (gestation) the offspring that are born to maternal nutritional manipulation are more susceptible to developing metabolic diseases in later adult life. Therefore, the aim of this thesis was to investigate the role of maternal nutritional manipulation on adipose tissue depots and in particular the consequences the effect on markers of adipokine secretion. Studies were conducted on both large and small animals (i.e. sheep and rats). Sheep studies focused on mid to late and late gestation periods of maternal nutritional restriction. Rat studies concentrated on long term fructose feeding during pregnancy and its effect on both the mother and offspring. Gene expression analysis identified an up-regulation in inflammatory related genes in pericardial and subcutaneous adipose tissue in the sheep studies. This was also seen in the rat studies with protein and gene expression displaying an up-regulation of inflammatory and metabolic related genes and proteins. The main conclusion of my thesis is that after following maternal nutrient restriction, females appear to be much more sensitive to inflammatory and metabolic adaptations compared to males, possibly due to sex hormones playing a role. Whilst fructose feeding during pregnancy concluded the possibility of homeorhesis playing a protective role against potentially detrimental inflammatory pathways being activated in the mothers, the offspring however displayed signs of low level chronic inflammation in the retroperitoneal depot from early infancy to later adult life.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:bl.uk/oai:ethos.bl.uk:635047 |
| Date | January 2014 |
| Creators | Patel, Nikhil |
| Publisher | University of Nottingham |
| Source Sets | Ethos UK |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Electronic Thesis or Dissertation |
| Source | http://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/13958/ |
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