While it is well known that an individual’s diet plays an important role in metabolic function, much less is known about the role that the mother’s diet plays in the future health of the offspring.
Associate Professor of Animal Sciences at the College of Agriculture, Health and Natural Resources, Kristen Govoni, has received a $ 25,000 grant through the Office of the Vice President’s Research Excellence Program (REP) to study the effects of maternal nutrition to examine the health of the offspring.
The Office of the Vice President Research REP provides start-up funding to support innovative research, grants and creative projects.
Using sheep as a model, she will study how overfeeding of the mother during pregnancy causes epigenetic changes in the livers of the offspring, which ultimately affect growth, metabolism and inflammation. This award will result in a grant application to address key human and animal health questions related to maternal nutrition.
Previous research has shown that poor maternal nutrition has negative effects on offspring growth and maintenance, including problems with obesity and metabolic disorders.
“We know that poor nutrition during pregnancy leads to reduced growth, increased fat storage and metabolic disorders in the offspring,” says Govoni. “This REP award will enable us to further explore the mechanisms that contribute to programming in the fetus and, with the long-term goal, to identify methods of early intervention to prevent and / or reduce metabolic diseases in later life.”
Challenges for a mother during pregnancy can contribute positively or negatively to fetal programming, leading to changes that can alter the later development of the offspring. There is recent evidence that such effects can extend to subsequent generations, even if the diet of the first generation of the offspring is normal.
Working with the laboratory of Sarah Reed, Associate Professor in the Department of Animal Science, Govoni is also studying the effects of maternal dietary changes on offspring muscle growth, oxidative stress and inflammation. This research study, funded by a U.S. Department of Agriculture, complements this REP-funded study to paint a complete picture of the effects of over- and undernourishment during pregnancy on subsequent growth and metabolism of the offspring, says Govoni.
If Govoni can determine how excess nutrient intake during pregnancy affects key genes that regulate growth, metabolism, and inflammation in the offspring, that research could ultimately provide nutritional guidelines during pregnancy that have effects beyond the first generation . Understanding how epigenetic regulation can be influenced during pregnancy could have far-reaching implications for obesity rates and associated health care costs.
Govoni has a Ph.D. in Animal Science from the University of Connecticut. Her research interests include the growth and development of farm animal species and how diet can have positive or negative effects on the health and efficiency of production.
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