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MartinsJD 2018 MiPschool Tromso C2

From Bioblast
MiPsociety
Sweetheart: Cardiac consequences of fetal exposure to maternal gestational diabetes on the offspring mitochondrial function.

Link: MitoEAGLE

Pereira SP, Martins JD, Rizo-Roca D, Santos-Alves E, Stevanovic J, Beleza J, Coxito P, Moreno AJ, Magalhaes J, Ascensao A, Oliveira PJ (2018)

Event: MiPschool Tromso-Bergen 2018

COST Action MitoEAGLE

Gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM) is defined as a state of glucose intolerance and hyperglycemia with first onset during pregnancy. The prevalence of GDM has been steadily increasing over the last 20 years being considered one of the most common complications of pregnancy, by affecting 5%–10% of pregnant women. Offspring of mothers with GDM are more prone to develop metabolic disorders, such as obesity, type 2 diabetes and, Cardiovascular diseases (CVD). Despite some results suggesting that exercised pregnant women gave birth to offspring with increased cardiac function, metabolic capacity and resistance (10), it is still unclear whether exercise during pregnancy affects fetal cellular signaling pathways, including mitochondrial bioenergetics, leading to a more resistant mitochondrial phenotypes in adulthood.

Using a rodent model of gestational diabetes, our objective is to demonstrate that diabetic pregnant mothers subjected to a protocol of voluntary physical activity (VPA) have offspring with a more robust mitochondrial function when compared with offspring from sedentary pregnant mothers.

Our preliminary results attested that the new model showed pronounced impact in the body weight gain and glucose tolerance when Sprague-Dawley females become pregnant. The absence of effects on non-pregnant Sprague-Dawley females reinforces our conviction that the proposed protocol mimics adequately the metabolic disturbances characteristic of GDM. We observed increased litter sizes in rats exposed to HFHS (C 12, HFHS 16) and at weaning, we detected a significant increase in the body weight of the offspring of the female rats fed with the HFHS diet, comparing to the offspring of mothers fed with the control diet during pregnancy. We will also present recently acquired data regarding the cardiac mitochondrial bioenergetics of the offspring of GDM with and without VPA.

The understanding of mitochondrial cardiac metabolism from the offspring of diabetic mothers is critical for appreciating the consequences of diabetes during gestation. We propose that VPA could be an invaluable tool for preventing the alterations the fetus is subjected to, and specially protect the cardiac function when gestating inside a diabetic mother.


Bioblast editor: Plangger M


Affiliations and Support

Pereira SP(1,2,#), Martins JD(1,#), Rizo-Roca D(2,#), Santos-Alves E(2,#), Stevanovic J(2,#), Beleza J(2,#), Coxito P(2,#), Moreno AJ(3), Magalhães J(2), Ascensão A(2), Oliveira PJ(1)

  1. CNC — Centre Neuroscience Cell Biology, Univ Coimbra
  2. CIAFEL — Research Centre Physical Activity, Health Leisure, Fac Sport, Univ Porto
  3. Dept Life Sciences, School Sciences Technology, Univ Coimbra; Portugal

# These authors contributed equally to the work

This work was funded by FEDER/COMPETE/FCT-Portugal (PTDC/DTP-DES/1082/2014, POCI-01-0145-FEDER-007440, OCI-01-0145-FEDER-016657, SFRH/BPD/116061/2016, SFRH/BD/73065/2010).


Labels: MiParea: Developmental biology, Exercise physiology;nutrition;life style  Pathology: Diabetes 

Organism: Rat 




Event: C2, Oral