Am J Physiol Regul Integr Comp Physiol
May 2020
Women in low- and middle-income countries frequently consume a protein-deficient diet during pregnancy and breastfeeding. The effects of gestational malnutrition on fetal and early postnatal development can have lasting adverse effects on offspring metabolism. Expanding on previous studies in rodent models, we utilized a nonhuman primate model of gestational and early-life protein restriction (PR) to evaluate effects on the organ development and glucose metabolism of juvenile offspring.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFFront Endocrinol (Lausanne)
September 2018
Maternal obesity and consumption of a high-fat diet (HFD) during pregnancy has a negative impact on offspring, including an increased risk for the development of obesity in adolescence. The mechanism for this transferred metabolic risk is unclear, but many studies have focused on the brain due to its important role in appetite and body-weight regulation. Two main pathways regulate appetite in the brain; homeostatic regulation that occurs predominantly in hypothalamic circuits and hedonic regulation of feeding that occurs via dopaminergic pathways.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFAkt signaling regulates diverse physiologies in a wide range of organisms. We examine the impact of increased Akt signaling in the fat body of 2 mosquito species, the Asian malaria mosquito Anopheles stephensi and the yellow fever mosquito Aedes aegypti. Overexpression of a myristoylated and active form of A.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFDietary restriction extends lifespan in many organisms, but little is known about how it affects hematophagous arthropods. We demonstrated that diet restriction during either larval or adult stages extends Aedes aegypti lifespan. A.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: In the mosquito Aedes aegypti the insulin/insulin growth factor I signaling (IIS) cascade is a key regulator of many physiological processes, including reproduction. Two important reproductive events, steroidogenesis in the ovary and yolk synthesis in the fat body, are regulated by the IIS cascade in mosquitoes. The signaling molecule phosphatase and tensin homolog (PTEN) is a key inhibitor of the IIS cascade that helps modulate the activity of the IIS cascade.
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