Abstract
Lie, Shervi
PhD Candidate, Early Origins of Adult Health Research Group, Sansom Institute for Health Research, University of South Australia
Nutrition around the time of conception determines how metabolic pathways develop in the liver
Poor maternal nutrition during pregnancy can result in a small size at birth and it has also been shown to result in deleterious effect on the metabolic health of the baby later in life. These effects include abdominal obesity, resistance to the action of insulin and high blood glucose level, which may in turn lead to the development of type-2 diabetes and cardiovascular diseases in adulthood. It is not clear, however, whether poor maternal nutrition around the time of conception has such profound consequences for the development of later metabolic health.
We aim to determine the effect of undernutrition during the whole period from when the egg undergoes maturation (45 days before conception) to one week after conception, during the time before the embryo becomes implanted in the uterus, or from conception to one week after conception, on factors regulating insulin signalling and glucose production in the fetal liver in late gestation.
Undernutrition around the time of conception did not alter fetal body weight in late gestation. There were changes, however, in the expression of factors regulating insulin signalling and glucose production in the liver of the developing fetus.
Poor maternal nutrition around the time of conception may result in a decrease capacity of the baby's liver to produce glucose and an increase in vulnerability to insulin resistance in later life. This study highlights the importance of nutritional balance around conception for the maintenance of the baby's long term metabolic health.