Project description:Taurine is known to be important for fetal well being and to be able to prevent effects of a low birthweight phenotype when supplemented to pregnant dams. We hypothesized that gestational taurine supplementation would affect gene expression level in 4w offspring liver and skeletal muscle. Pregnant mouse dams were subjected to different diet schemes from day 1 of pregnancy until birth. Pups were killed at 4 weeks of age and liver and quadriceps skeletal muscle taken out and frozen at -80C until analysis. Diet schemes: Normal Protein (20% casein; NP), Normal Protein + taurine (1% taurine supplementation in water ad libitum; NP+tau). The liver and muscle samples were normalized separately.
Project description:Taurine is known to be important for fetal well being and to be able to prevent effects of a low birthweight phenotype when supplemented to pregnant dams. We hypothesized that gestational taurine supplementation would affect gene expression level in 4w offspring liver and skeletal muscle.
Project description:Taurine ameliorates changes occurring in newborn skeletal muscle as a result of gestational protein restriction in C57BL/6 mice, but taurine supplementation effects may be exaggerated in C57BL/6 mice due to their inherent excessive taurinuria. We examined if maternal taurine supplementation could ameliorate changes in gene expression levels, properties of mitochondria, myogenesis, and nutrient transport and sensing, in male newborn skeletal muscle caused by a maternal low protein (LP) diet in Wistar rats. LP diet resulted in an 11% non-significant decrease in birth weight, which was not rescued by taurine supplementation (LP-Tau). LP-Tau offspring had signifi-cantly lower birth weight compared to controls. Gene expression profiling revealed 895 significantly changed genes, mainly an LP-induced down-regulation of genes involved in protein translation. Taurine fully or partially rescued 32% of these changes, but with no distinct pattern as to which genes were rescued. Skeletal muscle taurine content in LP-Tau offspring was increased, but no changes in mRNA levels of the taurine synthesis pathway were observed. Taurine transporter mRNA levels, but not protein levels, were increased by LP diet. Nutrient sensing pathways were largely unaffected in LP or LP-Tau groups, although taurine supplementation caused an unexpected decrease in total Akt and AMPK protein levels. PAT4 amino acid transporter mRNA was increased by LP, and normalized by taurine supplementation. In conclusion, gestational protein restriction in rats decreased genes involved in protein translation in newborn skeletal muscle and led to changes in nutrient transporters. Taurine partly rescued these changes, hence underscoring the im-portance of taurine in development. We used microarrays to detail changes in global programme of gene expression in newborn offspring skeletal muscle brains from rats subjected to either a control diet, a low protein diet or a low protein diet + taurine supplementation
Project description:Gestational protein restriction is a model for low birth size. We hypothesized that taurine supplementation would protect against changes in newborn liver and muscle caused by a maternal low protein diet. Pregnant mouse dams were subjected to different diet schemes from day 1 of pregnancy until birth. Pups were killed following birth and liver and hindleg skeletal muscle taken out and frozen at -80C until analysis. Diet schemes: Normal Protein (20% casein; NP), Normal Protein + taurine (1% taurine supplementation in water ad libitum; NP+tau), Low Protein (8% casein; LP) and LP+tau The liver and muscle samples were normalized separately.
Project description:Gestational protein restriction is a model for low birth size. We hypothesized that taurine supplementation would protect against changes in newborn liver and muscle caused by a maternal low protein diet.
Project description:We determined the effects of excess folic acid supplementation (5x recommendation) on maternal and fetal offspring metabolic health. Using a mouse (female C57BL/6J) model of gestational dibetes (GDM; 45% kcal fat diet) and control mice (10% kcal diet) we show that folic acid supplementation increased weight gain and fat mass in both GDM and control mice but improved insulin sensitivity in GDM mice and worsened insulin sensitivity in control mice. We found no unmetabolized folic acid in liver from supplemented mice suggesting the metabolic effects of folic acid supplementation may not be due to unmetabolized folic acid. Male fetal (gestational day 18.5) offspring from folic acid supplemented dams (GDM and control) had greater beta cell mass and density than those from unsupplemented dams; this was not observed in female offspring. Differential sex-specific hepatic gene expression profiles were observed in the offspring from supplemented dams but this differed between GDM and controls. Our findings suggest that folic acid supplementation affects insulin sensitivity in female mice, but is dependent on their metabolic phenotype, and has sex-specific effects on offspring pancreas and liver.
Project description:Analysis of skeletal muscle from taurine transporter (TauT) knockout mice at 3 or 18 months of age. Knocking out TauT result in a decrease in muscle cell size, impaired exercise capacity and accelerated muscle aging. Results provide molecular insights into physiological role of taurine. Sample: 12
Project description:Analysis of skeletal muscle from taurine transporter (TauT) knockout mice at 3 or 18 months of age. Knocking out TauT result in a decrease in muscle cell size, impaired exercise capacity and accelerated muscle aging. Results provide molecular insights into physiological role of taurine.