PR000604 (Project)

Description:Gestational hypoxia presents a significant stress to an unborn fetus that can lead to significant complications related to fetal growth restriction and resulting in diseases in the newborn as well as those manifesting later in life. Recent evidence indicates that inflammation and oxidative stress are contributing factors to hypoxia-related diseases. The Center for Perinatal Biology at Loma Linda University has studied gestational chronic hypoxia in a sheep model for over 20 years to study dysfunction of vascular and nonvascular tissues derived from mothers, fetuses and offspring. In this project we are attempting to use metabolomics to assess metabolic dysregulation in vascular tissues along with markers of oxidative stress and inflammation in the mother and offspring to determine the extent of dysregulation due to chronic hypoxia. Untargeted metabolomics analysis focused on sheep plasma and arteries from the lung, resistance arteries in the brain, uterine arteries, and cultured human myocytes will be used to explore markers of glucose and lipid metabolism disruption. Targeted analyses of oxylipins and endocannabinoids will be used on the same samples to explore markers of oxidative stress and inflammation, which should be increased during hypoxia. This study should delineate pathways and biomarkers that help explain how hypoxia leads to the development of neonatal as well as adult-onset diseases associated with chronic hypoxia that are inter-related with fetal growth restriction.