Impact of diet on the persistence of early vascular remodeling and stiffening induced by intrauterine growth restriction and a maternal high-fat diet.

Intrauterine growth restriction (IUGR) and maternal high-fat diet (HFD) independently predispose offspring to hypertension. In a rat model, IUGR more so than maternal HFD increases arterial stiffness with vascular remodeling as early as (PND) . The trajectory of such early vascular changes remains unknown.

Intrauterine growth restriction decreases NF-κB signaling in fetal pulmonary artery endothelial cells of fetal sheep.

Intrauterine growth restriction (IUGR) in premature newborns increases the risk for bronchopulmonary dysplasia, a chronic lung disease characterized by disrupted pulmonary angiogenesis and alveolarization. We previously showed that experimental IUGR impairs angiogenesis; however, mechanisms that impair pulmonary artery endothelial cell (PAEC) function are uncertain. The NF-κB pathway promotes vascular growth in the developing mouse lung, and we hypothesized that IUGR disrupts NF-κB-regulated proangiogenic targets in fetal PAEC.

A comparison of sexing methods in fetal mice.

Accurate mouse sexing is vital when conducting research examining sexual dimorphisms. Late fetal and newborn mouse pups are more immature than many previously described sexing methods allow. This study compares the sexing accuracy of a newly described internal gonad sexing method to a recently described peritoneal pigmentation sexing method in embryonic day 20 C57BL/6J mouse pups, using Sry genotyping to confirm the sex.

Intrauterine endotoxin-induced impairs pulmonary vascular function and right ventricular performance in infant rats and improvement with early vitamin D therapy.

High pulmonary vascular resistance (PVR), proximal pulmonary artery (PA) impedance, and right ventricular (RV) afterload due to remodeling contribute to the pathogenesis and severity of pulmonary hypertension (PH). Intra-amniotic exposure to endotoxin (ETX) causes sustained PH and high mortality in rat pups at birth, which are associated with impaired vascular growth and RV hypertrophy in survivors. Treatment of ETX-exposed pups with antenatal vitamin D (vit D) improves survival and lung growth, but the effects of ETX exposure on RV-PA coupling in the neonatal lung are unknown.