Fetal programming has profound effects on cardiovascular function in later adult life. We tested the hypothesis that chronic hypoxic exposure during fetal development downregulates endogenous cardioprotective mechanisms in adult rats. Time-dated pregnant rats were divided between normoxic and hypoxic (10.5% O2 from days 15 to 21 of gestation) groups. The male progeny were studied at 2 mo of age...

Environmental factors may affect the growth, size, phenotype, behavior, and other characteristics of avian embryos at different developmental stages; however, the roles of individual embryonic physiological systems in these effects remain largely unclear. Embryonic motility is an important component of the prenatal development observed almost throughout embryogenesis and may be a precursor of p...

The present study tested the hypothesis that protein kinase C (PKC) epsilon plays a key role in the sex dichotomy of heart susceptibility to ischemia and reperfusion injury in adult offspring resulting from prenatal hypoxic exposure. Time-dated pregnant rats were divided between normoxic and hypoxic (10.5% O(2) on days 15-21 of gestation) groups. Hearts of 3-month-old progeny were subjected to ...

OBJECTIVE To identify converging themes from the neurodevelopmental hypothesis of schizophrenia and the pathophysiology of diabetic pregnancy and to examine mechanisms by which diabetes mellitus in a pregnant mother may increase the risk of schizophrenia in offspring. METHODS We reviewed relevant publications on clinical, epidemiologic and animal studies of diabetic pregnancy and the neurodev...

Prenatal stress (PNS) is associated with increased biological risk for mental disorders such as anxiety and depression later in life, and stress appear to be additive to the PNS influences. Among the most widely cited and accepted alternative hypotheses of anxiety and depression is dysfunction of the HPA axis, a system that is central in orchestrating the stress response. Therefore, understandi...

objective(s):hypoxia induces cellular oxidative stress that is associated with neurodegenerative diseases. here, the protective effects of ferulic acid (fa) on hypoxia-induced neurotoxicity in pc12 cells were evaluated. materials and methods:we investigated the effect of fa on pc12 cells subjected to hypoxia stress, in vitro. results:fa increased cell viability, prevented membrane damage (ldh r...

In a recent study (Huang YH et al. Respir Physiol Neurobiol 143: 1-8, 2004), we showed that prenatal nicotine exposure (PNE) increased the frequency of spontaneous apneic events on the first 2 days of life in unanesthetized neonatal rats. Here we test the hypothesis that PNE blunts chemoreceptor reflexes. Ventilatory responses to three levels each of hypoxia (inspired O(2) fraction: 16, 12, and...

It is well established that hypoxia during em bryonic development will cause various malforma tions in the offspring. This has been reported to occur in bees, amphibians, fishes, chickens, and mammals. Natural or experimental hypoxia may be brought about in various ways, e.g., by plugging of the thoracic tracheae of bees (3), by painting chicken egg shells partially with shellac, by reduced pas...

Oxygen consumption (VO2) was measured in normoxia as ambient temperature (Ta) was lowered from 40 to 15 degrees C, at the rate of 0.5 degrees C/min (thermoneutrality approximately 33 degrees C). In 2-day-old rats born in hypoxia after hypoxic gestation, the Ta-VO2 relationship was as in controls; their interscapular brown adipose tissue (IBAT) was hypoplastic (less proteins and DNA), with lower...