TY  - JOUR
AU  - Satterfield, Michael
AU  - Lambo, Colleen
AU  - Sandoval, Camila
PY  - 2018
DA  - 2018/12/28
TI  - Redirecting Fetal Programming: Evidence of Interventions that May Be A Tool for Health
JO  - OBM Genetics
SP  - 058
VL  - 02
IS  - 04
AB  - Understanding the pathophysiology of disease can be an essential step to determining where and how to intervene for preventive or corrective health. Intrauterine growth restriction (IUGR) is a broad category of ailments described by low fetal weight and accompanying susceptibility to adult onset of chronic disease through fetal programming for a thrifty phenotype. This concern affects humans and animals alike, representing a large sum of healthcare costs worldwide, and a substantial loss in animal agricultural yields. A gestating fetus requires an immense increase in nutrient delivery toward the end of pregnancy, which is achieved primarily through exponential increases in uterine blood flow and placental vascularization. An evaluation of the currently known mechanisms behind placental compromise can identify why some treatment interventions have successfully prevented IUGR, and identify new areas for experimentation. Of the many experimental models for IUGR, maternal nutrient restriction is a well-studied and minimally invasive tool with real-world application to famine and grazing livestock. Nutrient restriction in the sheep model has demonstrated that compromised uterine blood flow can be improved through treatment with sildenafil citrate, and that reduced populations of amino acid transporters can be supported by increasing maternal circulating concentrations of specific amino acids, as well as through amniotic infusions of IGF-1. In addition, a number of prenatal treatments such as amino acid, and melatonin supplementation, have been successful or have the potential to prevent the IUGR phenotype or the metabolic alterations leading to higher risk of disease.  While the thrifty phenotype has long been a cause for health issues worldwide, available research from the nutritionally restricted pregnant ewes offers hope for identifying treatment interventions to redirect or reverse concerning epigenetic trajectories.
SN  - 2577-5790
UR  - https://doi.org/10.21926/obm.genet.1804058
DO  - 10.21926/obm.genet.1804058
ID  - Satterfield2018
ER  -