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Prenatal programming of postnatal obesity: fetal nutrition and the regulation of leptin synthesis and secretion before birth

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  07 March 2007

I. C. McMillen ,
B. S. Muhlhausler ,
J. A. Duffield  and
B. S. J. Yuen
I. C. McMillen*
Affiliation:
Discipline of Physiology, School of Molecular and Biomedical Sciences, University of Adelaide, Adelaide, SA 5005, Australia
B. S. Muhlhausler
Affiliation:
Discipline of Physiology, School of Molecular and Biomedical Sciences, University of Adelaide, Adelaide, SA 5005, Australia
J. A. Duffield
Affiliation:
Discipline of Physiology, School of Molecular and Biomedical Sciences, University of Adelaide, Adelaide, SA 5005, Australia
B. S. J. Yuen
Affiliation:
Discipline of Physiology, School of Molecular and Biomedical Sciences, University of Adelaide, Adelaide, SA 5005, Australia
*
*Corresponding author: Professor I. C. McMillen, fax 61 8 8 303 3356, email caroline.mcmillen@adelaide.edu.au
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Abstract

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Exposure to either an increased or decreased level of intrauterine nutrition can result in an increase in adiposity and in circulating leptin concentrations in later life. In animals such as the sheep and pig in which fat is deposited before birth, leptin is synthesised in fetal adipose tissue and is present in the fetal circulation throughout late gestation. In the sheep a moderate increase or decrease in the level of maternal nutrition does not alter fetal plasma leptin concentrations, but there is evidence that chronic fetal hyperglycaemia and hyperinsulinaemia increase fetal fat mass and leptin synthesis within fetal fat depots. Importantly, there is a positive relationship between the relative mass of the ‘unilocular’ component of fetal perirenal and interscapular adipose tissue and circulating fetal leptin concentrations in the sheep. Thus, as in the neonate and adult, circulating leptin concentrations may be a signal of fat mass in fetal life. There is also evidence that leptin can act to regulate the lipid storage, leptin synthetic capacity and potential thermogenic functions of fat before birth. Thus, leptin may act as a signal of energy supply and have a ‘lipostatic’ role before birth. Future studies are clearly required to determine whether the intrauterine and early postnatal nutrient environment programme the endocrine feedback loop between adipose tissue and the central and peripheral neuroendocrine systems that regulate energy balance, resulting in an enhanced risk of obesity in adult life.

Keywords

LeptinFetusAdiposityObesityFetal Nutrition
Type
Symposium on ‘Adipose tissue development and the programming of adult obesity’
Information
Proceedings of the Nutrition Society , Volume 63 , Issue 3 , August 2004 , pp. 405 - 412
Copyright
Copyright © The Nutrition Society 2004

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