This subproject is one of many research subprojects utilizing theresources provided by a Center grant funded by NIH/NCRR. The subproject andinvestigator (PI) may have received primary funding from another NIH source,and thus could be represented in other CRISP entries. The institution listed isfor the Center, which is not necessarily the institution for the investigator.We are currently undertaking an NCRR supported R24 to study the postnatal effects of maternal nutrient restriction during pregnancy and lactation on the health of offspring. Several human epidemiological studies show that when pregnant women are under nourished at different periods of pregnancy, their offspring are susceptible to a higher incidence of major diseases such as diabetes, high blood pressure and obesity. This conditioning of lifetime health by the environment in the womb has been called fetal programming. Studies conduced in our laboratory and other laboratories throughout the world in non-primate species have shown that the maternal under nutrition alters the development of fetal organs such as the brain, liver, and pancreas. To date these studies have been carried out mostly in sheep and rats. The details of development of fetal sheep and fetal rats in the womb demonstrate both similarities and differences when compared to primates. It is necessary to carry out the experimental studies in a nonhuman primate species so that we can determine the extent to which nutrition compromises fetal development in primates.
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