Developmental defects in the fetal pancreas by the maternal undernutrition during pregnancy

2016 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 26870906
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Young Scientists (B)
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Research Field: Embryonic/Neonatal medicine; Medical genome science
• Research Institution: National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology
• Principal Investigator: Yasunaga Mayu 国立研究開発法人産業技術総合研究所, 健康工学研究部門, 研究員 (70712181)
• Project Period (FY): 2014-04-01 – 2017-03-31
• Keywords: 妊娠期低栄養 / オステオカルシン / 骨形成 / 膵臓β細胞

Outline of Final Research Achievements

To investigate the mechanism involved in type II diabetes by the mother’s undernutrition during pregnancy, we developed an animal model of undernutrition by maternal caloric restriction and verified whether bone formation markers osteocalcin was related with the developmental defects of the fetal pancreatic beta cells, because osteocalcin regulating not only the bone formation but the proliferation of beta cells and insulin secretion.
We subjected pregnant mice to 50% food restriction during the last week of gestation, newborn was small at birth and pancreatic islet regions decreased, as previous reports. Interestingly, neonatal bone weight decreased even though bone length didn’t change. Moreover, osteocalcin in blood markedly decreased, these results indicated that developmental defects in the fetal pancreatic beta cells may be related to reduction of osteocalcin in blood.

Free Research Field

分子細胞生物学