Abstract
Objective: Synthetic glucocorticoid administration to women threatening preterm delivery increases neonatal survival. However, mounting evidence shows that fetal exposure to glucocorticoid levels higher than appropriate for current maturation adversely programs offspring development. We examined fetal synthetic glucocorticoid multigenerational metabolic effects on F1 and F2 female offspring. Study Design: At 0.7 gestation, pregnant F0 ewes received 4 injections of dexamethasone (2 mg, approximately 60 ug.kg-1 day -1 12 hours apart) or saline (control). F1 female offspring were bred to produce F2 female offspring. Postpubertal pancreatic β-cell function was tested in F1 and F2 by intravenous glucose tolerance test. Results: F1 and F2 ewe lambs showed reduced birthweight and morphometrics, and similar increased fasting glucose and decreased intravenous glucose tolerance test β-cell response. Conclusion: This is the first demonstration of multigenerational programming of later life β-cell response by clinically relevant doses of synthetic glucocorticoid indicating the need for study of long-term effects of fetal exposure to synthetic glucocorticoid.
Original language | English (US) |
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Pages (from-to) | 203.e1-203.e8 |
Journal | American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology |
Volume | 207 |
Issue number | 3 |
DOIs | |
State | Published - Sep 2012 |
Keywords
- antenatal synthetic glucocorticoids
- growth restriction
- insulin and glucose metabolism
- mutigenerational developmental programming
- sheep
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Obstetrics and Gynecology