Download or read book The impact of maternal obesity on vascular and metabolic function throughout pregnancy written by Frances Maria Stewart and published by . This book was released on 2008 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Obesity During Pregnancy in Clinical Practice written by Wanda Nicholson and published by Springer Science & Business Media. This book was released on 2013-11-26 with total page 362 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book summarizes the effects of overweight/obesity in the childbearing years that can be effectively communicated to patients by their providers in a busy practice setting, and provides concise and understandable summaries of the evidence-based, theory-driven lifestyle interventions that have been shown to be effective for weight loss and modifying the risk of developing diabetes and obesity.

Download or read book Weight Gain During Pregnancy written by National Research Council and published by National Academies Press. This book was released on 2010-01-14 with total page 868 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: As women of childbearing age have become heavier, the trade-off between maternal and child health created by variation in gestational weight gain has become more difficult to reconcile. Weight Gain During Pregnancy responds to the need for a reexamination of the 1990 Institute of Medicine guidelines for weight gain during pregnancy. It builds on the conceptual framework that underscored the 1990 weight gain guidelines and addresses the need to update them through a comprehensive review of the literature and independent analyses of existing databases. The book explores relationships between weight gain during pregnancy and a variety of factors (e.g., the mother's weight and height before pregnancy) and places this in the context of the health of the infant and the mother, presenting specific, updated target ranges for weight gain during pregnancy and guidelines for proper measurement. New features of this book include a specific range of recommended gain for obese women. Weight Gain During Pregnancy is intended to assist practitioners who care for women of childbearing age, policy makers, educators, researchers, and the pregnant women themselves to understand the role of gestational weight gain and to provide them with the tools needed to promote optimal pregnancy outcomes.

Download or read book Metabolic Syndrome and Complications of Pregnancy written by Enrico Ferrazzi and published by Springer. This book was released on 2015-06-24 with total page 237 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book explores the nature of pregnancy and metabolic syndrome as proinflammatory conditions and explains how pregnancy provides a window of opportunity for preventing the lifelong complications of metabolic syndrome, during which key risk factors can be identified and beneficial dietary changes can be implemented. The book’s opening sections discuss inflammation in the context of pregnancy, including the nature of the placenta as a proinflammatory tissue. In the main body, it points to new possible connections to truncal obesity, inflammation, metabolic syndrome, and major obstetrical syndromes, including preeclampsia, gestational diabetes and pre-term delivery. Based on the insights offered by this analysis, the remainder of the book focuses on a variety of nutritional measures and diets that can be of benefit during and beyond pregnancy. Readers will learn how the higher level of compliance with medical instructions during pregnancy can be capitalized on to ensure enduring health benefits for mother and child alike.

Download or read book Maternal Obesity written by Matthew W. Gillman and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2012-07-19 with total page 265 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Afflicting more than 300 million women across the globe, obesity has profound effects on health during pregnancy and on the wellbeing of the unborn child. In the face of such a challenging pandemic, this book reviews the latest research and provides up-to-date advice on clinical management. Maternal Obesity addresses the adverse effects of obesity among women of childbearing age, including infertility, medical complications, problems in labor, and adverse birth outcomes, and it reviews evidence that the obese mother's in utero environment has long-lasting influences on the health of the developing child. Chapters cover basic, clinical, and population perspectives, providing a range of valuable information from mechanistic insight through to public health and policy implications. Invaluable for obstetricians, gynaecologists, paediatricians, general and family physicians, subspecialists in obstetric and paediatric medicine, midwives, and dietitians, as well as researchers and public health policy makers seeking to tackle the burden of maternal obesity-related illness.

Download or read book Fetal Cardiac Function written by E. Gratacós and published by S. Karger AG (Switzerland). This book was released on 2012 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Fetal echocardiography was initially used to detect structural anomalies, but has more recently also been proposed to assess fetal cardiac function. Functional echocardiography has been demonstrated to select high-risk populations and has been seen to have an effect on the outcome of several fetal conditions. Because of the small size and high heart rate and the restricted access away from the transducer, cardiovascular parameters should be validated but used with caution in the fetus. This special issue on fetal cardiac function is a collection of review and original articles showing several potential clinical and research applications of functional echocardiography in intrauterine growth restriction, twin-to-twin transfusion syndrome, congenital heart disease and aneuploides. The insights provided show that fetal cardiac function assessment is a promising tool that may soon be incorporated into clinical practice to diagnose, monitor or predict outcome in some fetal conditions. Therefore, this special issue on 'fetal cardiac function' provides valuable reading for clinicians and researchers in fetal medicine and cardiology who are interested in the fetal heart.

Download or read book Gestational Diabetes written by A. Lapolla and published by Karger Medical and Scientific Publishers. This book was released on 2019-12-19 with total page 277 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Diabetes mellitus, one of the most prevalent complications during pregnancy, can cause a range of problems for women and their developing babies. The number of types of diabetes during pregnancy has dramatically increased worldwide in recent years. Obesity is a very common risk factor for the development of GDM and type 2 diabetes. To prevent birth defects and other health problems, optimal healthcare before and during pregnancy is mandatory. To reach this goal, a multidisciplinary approach is of major importance. This book presents the latest knowledge on the physiopathology, diagnosis, autoimmunity, genetics, omics, and management and treatment of diabetic pregnancy. Renowned healthcare professionals and academic experts provide insights into the complexity of diabetic pregnancy, its treatment, and pregnancy complications. This is a comprehensive overview of the clinical characteristics of pregnancy-related type 1 and 2 diabetes as well as of gestational diabetes. It is a must-read for everyone involved in the monitoring of diabetes during pregnancy.

Download or read book Handbook of Life Course Health Development written by Neal Halfon and published by Springer. This book was released on 2017-11-20 with total page 667 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book is open access under a CC BY 4.0 license. ​This handbook synthesizes and analyzes the growing knowledge base on life course health development (LCHD) from the prenatal period through emerging adulthood, with implications for clinical practice and public health. It presents LCHD as an innovative field with a sound theoretical framework for understanding wellness and disease from a lifespan perspective, replacing previous medical, biopsychosocial, and early genomic models of health. Interdisciplinary chapters discuss major health concerns (diabetes, obesity), important less-studied conditions (hearing, kidney health), and large-scale issues (nutrition, adversity) from a lifespan viewpoint. In addition, chapters address methodological approaches and challenges by analyzing existing measures, studies, and surveys. The book concludes with the editors’ research agenda that proposes priorities for future LCHD research and its application to health care practice and health policy. Topics featured in the Handbook include: The prenatal period and its effect on child obesity and metabolic outcomes. Pregnancy complications and their effect on women’s cardiovascular health. A multi-level approach for obesity prevention in children. Application of the LCHD framework to autism spectrum disorder. Socioeconomic disadvantage and its influence on health development across the lifespan. The importance of nutrition to optimal health development across the lifespan. The Handbook of Life Course Health Development is a must-have resource for researchers, clinicians/professionals, and graduate students in developmental psychology/science; maternal and child health; social work; health economics; educational policy and politics; and medical law as well as many interrelated subdisciplines in psychology, medicine, public health, mental health, education, social welfare, economics, sociology, and law.

Download or read book Cardiovascular and Multigenerational Implications of Maternal Obesity written by Christopher L. Pankey and published by . This book was released on 2018 with total page 106 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Obesity is a growing global issue associated with adverse health consequences including cardiovascular disease, the leading cause of death worldwide. According to the World Health Organization, global obesity has tripled since 1975, and 41 million children under five were obese or overweight in 2016. Sedentary lifestyle and hypercaloric diets are key contributors to increasing incidence of obesity, but there are additional contributing factors to consider. Previous studies from our lab have shown that maternal obesity (OB) predisposes offspring to exhibit indications of the metabolic syndrome including insulin/glucose dysregulation, increased adiposity, hypercortisolemia, and cardiovascular disease. These findings are supported by multiple epidemiologic and controlled animal studies. However, many questions remain regarding in vivo cardiovascular function, and intergenerational programming effects. This dissertation focuses on the intergenerational and transgenerational programming of adverse cardiovascular and metabolic phenotypes from OB. In the first experiment, we evaluated in vivo cardiovascular structure and function using invasive blood pressure measurements, and echocardiography. We found that in prenatal life, OBF1 fetuses have thicker aortas, with a greater collagen:elastin ratio (suggestive of lowered elasticity). We also found that OBF1 are hypertensive relative to CONF1 at 2.5 months of age, yet hypotensive with multiple cardiac geometric changes upon reaching advanced age. These findings suggest that OB programs vascular changes that increase cardiac workload in the young, and eventually leads to indications of cardiac failure in old age. The second and third studies focus on inter- and transgenerational programming of indications for metabolic syndrome after OB. We found that intergenerational programming resulted in OBF2 exhibiting insulin/glucose dysregulation, hypercortisolemia, and increased weight gain when F2 were exposed to a metabolic stress such as ad libitum feed or gestation. We also found that OBF3 show differences in body size and weight at birth, but seemingly normal endocrine profiles. These data suggest that OB programs transgenerational phenotypes that may be epigenetically linked, yet many phenotypes require direct exposure to the initial OBF0 uterine environment. Given the similarities of fetal:maternal mass, temporal pattern of development, and precocial offspring, we suggest that this model is imperative to improving our understanding of obese pregnancies in humans.

Download or read book Maternal Fetal Nutrition During Pregnancy and Lactation written by Michael E. Symonds and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2010-01-28 with total page 217 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: With the aim to improve clinicians' understanding of the important effects nutrition can have on maternal health and fetal and neonatal development, Maternal-Fetal Nutrition During Pregnancy and Lactation defines the nutritional requirements with regard to the stage of development and growth, placing scientific developments into clinical context.

Download or read book Biochemistry of Cardiovascular Dysfunction in Obesity written by Paramjit S. Tappia and published by Springer Nature. This book was released on 2020-10-03 with total page 402 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Obesity is an independent risk factor for cardiovascular disease (CVD) in adults as well as in obese children. This book will provide a description of the impact of obesity on the cardiovascular system and increased predisposition to CVD. It will identify the major biochemical mechanisms that lead to the occurrence of myocardial abnormalities and vascular alterations in obesity. We will also have some discussion on the biochemistry of the so-called obesity paradox in relation to CVD. The contributors to this book are international experts on obesity and associated cardiovascular complications. This book is also uniquely positioned as it focuses on the biochemistry of obesity-induced cardiovascular dysfunction. There are 20 chapters in 2 different parts in this book, comprising of Part A: Pathophysiology of Cardiovascular Complications in Obesity (11 chapters) and Part B: Modification of Cardiovascular Dysfunction in obesity (9 chapters). The intent of this volume is to provide current and basic understanding of the biochemical mechanisms of obesity induced cardiovascular dysfunction that will be of value not only to cardiologists and other allied health professionals, but will also stimulate and motivate biomedical researchers and scientists to find the way to prevent the epidemic of obesity associated cardiovascular abnormalities. Furthermore, this book will serve as a highly useful resource for medical students, fellows, residents and graduate students with an interest in the cardiovascular system. In summary, this book covers a broad range of biochemical mechanisms of obesity-induced cardiovascular complications. We hope that the reader will understand that obesity is linked to an increase in the risk and occurrence of fatal CVD. Furthermore, the underlying message presented in the book is that the cause of obesity related disorders is complex and that understanding the biochemistry of cardiovascular dysfunction may contribute to the development of novel interventions for the prevention and treatment of obesity associated comorbidities.

Download or read book Pathophysiology of Obesity Induced Health Complications written by Paramjit S. Tappia and published by Springer Nature. This book was released on 2020-01-17 with total page 348 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: ​According to the World Health Organization, the epidemic of global obesity has nearly tripled since 1975. In 2016, more than 1.9 billion adults were overweight, over 650 million of which were obese. Being overweight and obese has been linked to a number of non-communicable, chronic diseases. Pathophysiology of Obesity-Induced Health Complications is a compilation of review articles dedicated to describe co-morbidities associated with obesity. The wide range that is covered is of significant interest to basic research scientists, clinicians and graduate students who are engaged in studying obesity-induced health complications. Furthermore, this book highlights the potential of novel approaches for the prevention and treatment of obesity and its related illnesses. Nineteen articles in this book are organized in four sections that are designed to provide an overview of obesity-induced health complications. The first section serves as an introductory section on the prevalence, causes, consequences, treatments and preventive approaches for obesity. Section two covers the metabolic disturbances and inflammation due to obesity. The third section is focused on neurological and visceral complications as a consequence of obesity. The final section covers strategies for the prevention of obesity-induced complications. The book illustrates that obesity can result in a diverse range of pathophysiological conditions that adversely affect health.

Download or read book Clinical Maternal Fetal Medicine written by Hung N. Winn and published by CRC Press. This book was released on 2000-06-15 with total page 980 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Maternal-fetal medicine has evolved over the last three decades to become a well-established discipline. The current understanding of maternal physiology and pathophysiology has allowed us to obtain more accurate diagnoses and to provide more effective treatments of medical, surgical, and obstetrical maternal complications. More importantly, the fetus has become a distinct individual whose in utero environment has become much more accessible to study, diagnose, and treatment. Clinical Maternal-Fetal Medicine addresses the pathophysiology, diagnosis, and treatment of common medical and obstetrical maternal complications and fetal complications. It provides a concise and timely review of clinically relevant topics in this discipline. The textbook is a comprehensive reference covering the wide range of disciplines that make up maternal-fetal medicine.

Download or read book Physical Activity and Maternal and Neonatal Outcomes in Obese Pregnant Women written by Rachel Ann Tinius and published by . This book was released on 2015 with total page 164 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Maternal obesity and physical inactivity during pregnancy are independently associated with unfavorable maternal and neonatal metabolic outcomes. Previous research in non-gravid adults suggests physical activity provides protection from many chronic diseases irrespective of body weight. The primary purposes of this dissertation were to determine the impact of obesity on maternal metabolic health (lipid metabolism, inflammation, insulin resistance) and neonatal metabolic health (adiposity, inflammation, insulin resistance), and to determine if adverse maternal and neonatal metabolic health is improved in obese pregnant women who are physically active during pregnancy compared to sedentary obese women. The secondary purpose of this dissertation was to examine the relationships between maternal and neonatal metabolic health. Three groups of pregnant women were compared between 32 and 37 weeks gestation (N=50). Groups consisted of: 1) lean women, 2) obese sedentary women, and 3) obese physically active women. Body composition (skinfold anthropometry), physical fitness levels (submaximal cycle test), and physical activity levels (accelerometry) were assessed. Maternal plasma markers of insulin resistance (Homeostatic Model Assessment-Insulin Resistance (HOMA-IR)) and systemic inflammation (C -- reactive protein) were measured at rest. Lipid oxidation rate and lipolysis were measured at baseline, during a 30-minute bout of low-intensity exercise, and during a 1-hour recovery period. Cord blood was collected at parturition to measure neonatal plasma insulin resistance, inflammation, and free fatty acid concentration. Neonatal body composition was measured 24-48 hours postpartum via skinfold anthropometry and air displacement plethysmography. In Chapter 2, maternal and neonatal outcomes were compared between lean and obese pregnant women. Obese pregnant women had higher maternal inflammation, insulin resistance, and lipid oxidation rates. Maternal lipid oxidation rate and inflammation were positively correlated. Maternal inflammation was positively correlated to insulin resistance and blood pressure. Therefore, lipid metabolism may be contributing to inflammation and subsequent insulin resistance and hypertension in obese pregnant women. In Chapter 3, maternal and neonatal outcomes were compared between obese sedentary and obese physically active pregnant women. Physically active obese women had lower systemic inflammation compared to sedentary obese women; thus, regular physical activity may improve inflammation in obese pregnant women. In Chapter 4, the relationships between maternal and neonatal metabolic outcomes were examined. There were no correlations between maternal and neonatal metabolic outcomes across all women in the study. Several relationships between maternal and neonatal outcomes were found when comparing lean or obese women separately, which suggests that the mechanisms linking maternal and neonatal metabolic health are complex and potentially BMI-dependent. In Chapter 5, the relationship between intensity of physical activity and maternal inflammation was examined. Low-intensity physical activities had the strongest negative correlation to systemic inflammation. Data from Chapter 5 also suggest that small daily increases in low-intensity physical activities may be enough of a stimulus to elicit clinically meaningful reductions in inflammation. Thus, pregnant women should be encouraged to participate in low-intensity physical activities in order to reduce their systemic inflammation and improve their long-term health. Overall, results from this dissertation project suggest that obesity during pregnancy has unfavorable implications for maternal metabolic health. However, a physically active lifestyle might mitigate these alterations, particularly maternal systemic inflammation. Pregnant women of all body weights should be encouraged to participate in daily physical activity, even low-intensity activity, in order to improve their health and the future health of their offspring.

Download or read book The Role of Pregnancy Nutrition in Maternal and Offspring Health written by Ekaterina Maslova and published by MDPI. This book was released on 2019-12-03 with total page 320 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In pregnancy, maternal nutrition sustains and nourishes the developing child. Imbalances in either the direction of nutritional excess or deficiency can have adverse consequences for child health. In addition, more research now suggests that good pregnancy nutrition influences child health beyond pregnancy and delivery. This includes modifying the risk of child health outcomes as they enter childhood and adulthood through influences on placental development, hormonal pathways, and organ structure and function. Poor pregnancy nutrition may also compromise maternal health during pregnancy, which may have long-term consequences for women’s health. Understanding the biological and social mechanisms operating during pregnancy can help in the design of better clinical and public health interventions. This Special Issue on “The Role of Pregnancy Nutrition in Maternal and Offspring Health” includes etiological and mechanistic studies of pregnancy nutrition with short- and long-term maternal and child health outcomes, including original research, narrative reviews, and systematic reviews and meta-analyses. Together, this body of work provides important insights into the influence of dietary patterns, food groups, and nutrients on pregnancy outcomes, and long-term neurodevelopmental, respiratory, and metabolic health in the children. It also highlights nutritional consequences for specific groups of women, including those with pregnancy complications and eating disorders.

Download or read book Preterm Birth written by Institute of Medicine and published by National Academies Press. This book was released on 2007-05-23 with total page 791 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The increasing prevalence of preterm birth in the United States is a complex public health problem that requires multifaceted solutions. Preterm birth is a cluster of problems with a set of overlapping factors of influence. Its causes may include individual-level behavioral and psychosocial factors, sociodemographic and neighborhood characteristics, environmental exposure, medical conditions, infertility treatments, and biological factors. Many of these factors co-occur, particularly in those who are socioeconomically disadvantaged or who are members of racial and ethnic minority groups. While advances in perinatal and neonatal care have improved survival for preterm infants, those infants who do survive have a greater risk than infants born at term for developmental disabilities, health problems, and poor growth. The birth of a preterm infant can also bring considerable emotional and economic costs to families and have implications for public-sector services, such as health insurance, educational, and other social support systems. Preterm Birth assesses the problem with respect to both its causes and outcomes. This book addresses the need for research involving clinical, basic, behavioral, and social science disciplines. By defining and addressing the health and economic consequences of premature birth, this book will be of particular interest to health care professionals, public health officials, policy makers, professional associations and clinical, basic, behavioral, and social science researchers.

Download or read book The Role of Maternal High Fat Feeding on the Developmental Programming of Adulthood Disease written by Sarah Henry and published by . This book was released on 2014 with total page 340 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: It is now well understood that the maternal environment encountered as a fetus can profoundly influence an individual's risk of developing a myriad of diseases in later life. In particular, maternal nutritional challenges can have significant developmental impacts to the fetus and this concept is generally referred to as the Developmental Programming of Adulthood Health and Disease. As many developed nations, including Australia, shift to states of nutritional excess, research focusing on adverse maternal conditions such as obesity, diabetes and high fat feeding is becoming critically relevant. Whilst numerous studies have begun to characterise the role of maternal obesity on offspring health, there is almost no understanding of how consumption of a maternal high fat diet, that does not cause frank obesity, might contribute to the programming of offspring health. Maternal obesity is not an isolated condition, and confounding factors such as altered hormonal profiles and gestational diabetes can make it difficult to delineate what factors are driving the varied developmental changes observed in offspring.While the longer term impacts of maternal high fat feeding on adult offspring is relatively well understood, there is limited information on the impact of high fat intake on the in utero environment, including the amniotic fluid and placenta. Furthermore, greater characterisation of the fetal phenotype is needed following maternal high fat feeding. In particular, limited information is available on the role of maternal fat intake and renal development. Finally, although several studies have assessed the role of maternal fat intake on aspects of postnatal vascular and cardiovascular function, adult renal function has not been fully assessed, despite strong evidence that disrupted renal development may increase the risk of developing disease in later life. AIMS & OBJECTIVES We aimed to investigate the impact of high maternal dietary saturated fat intake on fetal and postnatal development, including identifying the in utero adaptations to amniotic fluid lipid composition, fetal (including kidney) and placental growth and function. Long-term aims included investigation of the postnatal phenotype of offspring born to fat fed mothers, with particular focus on evaluating the long-term effects on renal, cardiovascular and sympathetic function.We hypothesised that maternal high fat feeding would modify placental transport of nutrients, resulting in a hyperlipidaemic fetal amniotic environment. As a result, fetal growth trajectory and organ development, specifically the kidneys, would be disrupted. Furthermore, we postulated that exposure to maternal high fat feeding would result in augmented blood pressure and renal dysfunction in offspring in later life and that increased sympathetic nerve activity may be responsible for these disruptions in physiological function. METHODS Investigations were carried out using Sprague-Dawley rats. For embryonic studies, female breeders were fed either a control (C; 7% canola oil) or a lard rich high fat (HF) (3% canola oil and 20% lard) diet for 3 weeks prior to mating and throughout pregnancy until embryonic day (E) 14.25, E17.25 or E20. At collection, embryos and placentas were weighed. Amniotic fluid and maternal plasma lipid profiles were determined using a lipidomics approach facilitated by liquid chromatography mass spectrometry (LCMS). Renal development was examined via culturing of embryonic kidneys and quantification of branching morphogenesis. In addition, gene expression of placental transporters and fetal liver substrates involved in lipid metabolism were determined using qPCR.For postnatal studies, female Sprague-Dawley rats were exposed to either C or HF diet for 3 weeks prior to mating, throughout pregnancy and lactation. From weaning, offspring were chow fed ad libitum. Physiological experiments were undertaken at 6 and 12 months of age. Renal glomerular filtration rate (GFR), effective renal plasma (eRPF) and blood flow (eRBF) were estimated in anaesthetized rats by 3H-inulin and 14C-para-aminohippurate clearance. Mean arterial pressure (MAP) and heart rate (HR) were determined in conscious animals using radiotelemetry. At 1 year of age, whole body noradrenaline spillover was estimated in anaesthetized rats. 3H-noradrenaline was infused and whole body noradrenaline spillover was calculated. Sodium nitroprusside (SNP) was then infused to determine changes in sympathetic arousal in response to acute hypotension. In addition, renal noradrenaline content was determined during development (E20) and in postnatal animals at 21 days and 1 year as a proxy measure of sympathetic nerve development and long-term sympathetic nerve activity respectively. RESULTS & DISCUSSION Maternal high fat feeding resulted in hyperlipidaemia, and this was reflected in amniotic fluid lipid content, with significant increases in amniotic fluid triglyceride concentrations in late gestation. In contrast to our hypothesis, fetal renal development did not differ between C and HF exposed embryos, however minor changes were observed in placental growth and transporter expression. These placental modifications do not fully explain the significant increases in amniotic fluid lipid content in late gestation. Further investigation indicated that increased fetal hepatic lipogenic gene expression was not a mechanism involved with increased triglyceride concentration in amniotic fluid.To further characterise our phenotype, development of offspring was followed into the postnatal period. We found that maternal high fat feeding was associated with significantly increased blood pressure in both male and female offspring at 12 months. In addition, sexually dimorphic renal dysfunction was evident in offspring of fat fed dams at 12 months of age. To our knowledge, this is one of the first studies to analyse renal function in a model of maternal high fat feeding, using gold standard techniques. Again, in contrast to our hypothesis, investigation into sympathetic nervous system revealed there was no difference in sympathetic activity between experimental groups, and that this was not a mechanism contributing to the renal and cardiovascular dysfunction in offspring exposed to in utero HF conditions. As such, it appears that other factors are driving the physiological dysfunction in this model. We hypothesise that vascular function may be impaired in HF exposed offspring and that this may be the major mechanisms driving the observed renal and cardiovascular dysfunction. CONCLUSION The findings from this thesis clearly demonstrate that even modest increases in saturated fat intake can alter the in utero environment, and the consequences of these early life modifications are seen in postnatal life, with significant renal and cardiovascular dysfunction. Importantly, this model of high fat feeding is not dissimilar to what many women are consuming during pregnancy - that is, the consumption of high saturated fats without apparent obesity. From an obstetrics perspective, it is clear that there is more to the picture than factors such as maternal obesity, and that dietary levels of saturated fatty acids should also be monitored. Whilst it appears that maternal obesity leads to a more severe phenotype in models of programming, high saturated fat intake during pregnancy cannot be ignored, and increased intake of this fatty acid has long term detrimental effects on the fetus.As we move to an increasing burden of chronic diseases, such as kidney and cardiovascular disease, it is vitally important to understand the impact of the early life environment on health and disease in later life. Furthermore, an understanding of the mechanism contributing to perturbed tissue and organ development may aid early intervention and as such disease prevention in later life. Controlling saturated fat intake during pregnancy may be a small but significant step in reducing the risk of developing adulthood diseases in later life.Finally, from a clinical perspective, the dietary model used in this project is not dissimilar to what many pregnant women in developed nations would be consuming. It highlights an important concept that women who consume a high fat diet during pregnancy, but do not develop obesity, are still placing the developing fetus at risk. Furthermore, it highlights that early intervention may be clinically important in potentially reducing the prevalence of adult chronic diseases.