Project Reference: TRG27-IMS-SO1

Project title: Exploring how placental factors support maternal adaptation to pregnancy

Project outline

Pregnancy requires widespread changes in maternal energy homeostasis to support the growing fetus and prepare for feeding of the newborn. Many maternal changes are hormonally induced, either directly through changes in maternal metabolism or through release of placentally-derived factors. Physiological adaptations during pregnancy include changes in metabolism, physical activity, cardiovascular physiology, thermoregulation and behaviour. In pregnancies complicated by maternal obesity or gestational diabetes adaptation to pregnancy can be impaired leading to immediate and long-term effects on maternal and offspring health. One in seven pregnancies globally is affected by diabetes and over half of women in many settings, including the UK are affected by obesity/overweight. Therefore, understanding the mechanisms by which obesity and diabetes impact on adaptation to pregnancy could impact positively on the development of strategies to improve maternal and offspring health. The aims of this project are thus (1) to identify placental factors that are dysregulated in obese pregnancies, (2) to establish how they impact on maternal physiology and (3) to explore how their dysregulation could be prevented by interventions during complex pregnancies. This will be addressed using an established mouse model of maternal diet-induced obesity that develops impaired glucose tolerance during pregnancy and leads to long-term poor maternal and offspring cardio-metabolic health. The project will require the use of in vivo cardio-metabolic phenotyping techniques and state of the art ‘omic technologies combined with cellular and molecular tools thus providing a broad training experience.

Principal Supervisor

Professor Susan Ozanne

Email address: seo10@cam.ac.uk

Department / Partner Institute: Institute of Metabolic Science (IMS)

Website: https://www.mrl.ims.cam.ac.uk/staff/professor-susan-ozanne

BBSRC strategic theme

Bioscience for an integrated understanding of health