Prenatal exposure to a maternal low-protein diet affects nutritional stress response in the young adult mice.

2014 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 24590399
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (C)
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Section: 一般
• Research Field: Human genetics
• Research Institution: Tokyo Medical and Dental University
• Principal Investigator: SATO Noriko 東京医科歯科大学, 難治疾患研究所, 准教授 (70280956)
• Co-Investigator(Renkei-kenkyūsha): SUDO Katsuko 東京医科大学, 医学部, 講師 (50126091)
• Project Period (FY): 2012-04-01 – 2015-03-31
• Keywords: 胎内環境 / 形質頑健性 / 分子シャペロン / Hsp90 / Hsp70 / DOHaD / エピジェネティクス

Outline of Final Research Achievements

Epidemiological studies have shown that early embryonic exposure to low nutrition raises the risk of obesity, metabolic disorder and cardiovascular disease in the later life. Using mice, we studied the effects of maternal low protein (LP) diet during the early gestational period on the metabolic function of young offspring. We asked whether LP causes any change in the metabolic response against starvation. The plasma free fatty acids level was significantly lower in the LP than in the control mice. More intriguingly, the transcriptional induction of molecular chaperones, Hsp90 and Hsp70, was impaired in the liver of LP mice. This result prompted us to propose the novel idea that the mechanism regulated by molecular chaperones would also be involved in the DOHaD phenomena.

Free Research Field

エピゲノム