Maternal low-protein diet or hypercholesterolemia reduces circulating essential amino acids and leads to intrauterine growth restriction.

Objective: We have examined maternal mechanisms for adult-onset glucose intolerance, increased adiposity, and atherosclerosis using two mouse models for intrauterine growth restriction (IUGR): maternal protein restriction and hypercholesterolemia.

Research Design And Methods: For these studies, we measured the amino acid levels in dams from two mouse models for IUGR: 1) feeding C57BL/6J dams a protein-restricted diet and 2) feeding C57BL/6J LDL receptor-null (LDLR(-/-)) dams a high-fat (Western) diet.

Results: Both protein-restricted and hypercholesterolemic dams exhibited significantly decreased concentrations of the essential amino acid phenylalanine and the essential branched chain amino acids leucine, isoleucine, and valine.