Exploring the impact of maternal obesity on offspring renal morphology and later life health
type: CreativeWork
description: It is well established that exposure to adverse environments in early life including both maternal under and over-nutrition predisposes individuals to similar adverse traditionally adult onset diseases such as the metabolic syndrome. Epidemiological observations and animal models have highlighted that early life exposure to maternal under-nutrition has a detrimental effect on offspring kidney health. The prevalence of chronic kidney disease has increased rapidly in recent years, concurrently with the growing obesity epidemic. Obesity is now prevalent in all age groups within the population including women of child-bearing age. Despite this, the effect of early life exposure to maternal obesity on long-term kidney health has not been investigated in humans. Studies in animals have demonstrated that exposure to early life under-nutrition programs the offspring kidney. Offspring exposed to maternal calorie restriction or a low protein diet typically display a reduced number of nephrons and increased glomerular areas. No studies to date have investigated the effect of maternal obesity on early life kidney and glomerular morphology. To address this, as part of this thesis, kidney morphology was assessed at weaning in male mice exposed to maternal diet-induced obesity throughout gestation and lactation. There was no effect of maternal diet on the number of nephrons counted within a distinct region in the offspring kidneys. However, glomerular density was decreased and glomerular area was increased in offspring exposed to maternal obesity. Alterations in renal morphology in early life have been linked to hypertension and renal disease in adulthood in both epidemiological and animal studies. Therefore, a second aim of this thesis was to assess blood pressure, renal function and markers of renal damage in offspring exposed to maternal obesity throughout the life-course. Post-pubescent male offspring (8 weeks of age) exposed to maternal obesity displayed increased blood press…
abstract: It is well established that exposure to adverse environments in early life including both maternal under and over-nutrition predisposes individuals to similar adverse traditionally adult onset diseases such as the metabolic syndrome. Epidemiological observations and animal models have highlighted that early life exposure to maternal under-nutrition has a detrimental effect on offspring kidney health. The prevalence of chronic kidney disease has increased rapidly in recent years, concurrently with the growing obesity epidemic. Obesity is now prevalent in all age groups within the population including women of child-bearing age. Despite this, the effect of early life exposure to maternal obesity on long-term kidney health has not been investigated in humans. Studies in animals have demonstrated that exposure to early life under-nutrition programs the offspring kidney. Offspring exposed to maternal calorie restriction or a low protein diet typically display a reduced number of nephrons and increased glomerular areas. No studies to date have investigated the effect of maternal obesity on early life kidney and glomerular morphology. To address this, as part of this thesis, kidney morphology was assessed at weaning in male mice exposed to maternal diet-induced obesity throughout gestation and lactation. There was no effect of maternal diet on the number of nephrons counted within a distinct region in the offspring kidneys. However, glomerular density was decreased and glomerular area was increased in offspring exposed to maternal obesity. Alterations in renal morphology in early life have been linked to hypertension and renal disease in adulthood in both epidemiological and animal studies. Therefore, a second aim of this thesis was to assess blood pressure, renal function and markers of renal damage in offspring exposed to maternal obesity throughout the life-course. Post-pubescent male offspring (8 weeks of age) exposed to maternal obesity displayed increased blood press…
author: Pinnock, Adele Grace
language: en
keywords: programming, offspring, kidney, maternal, obesity
license: https://apollo8-f-pro.lib.cam.ac.uk/bitstreams/7eeb4008-a15c-476b-bdb4-b1d7e74c99a0/download
license: https://www.rioxx.net/licenses/all-rights-reserved/
date published: 2018-07-20
date modified: 2026-07-22T22:24:31Z
provider: Cambridge University
publisher: Networked Digital Library of Theses and Dissertations
type: WebPage
source organization: University of Cambridge

PropertyValue
property ID: DOI
value: 10.17863/CAM.23413