Project description:The late-gestation fetal sheep responds to hypoxia with physiological, neuroendocrine, and cellular responses that aid in fetal survival . The response of the fetus to hypoxia represents a coordinated effort to maximize oxygen transfer from the mother and minimize wasteful oxygen consumption by the fetus. While there have been many studies aimed at investigating the coordinated physiological and endocrine responses to hypoxia, and while immunohistochemical or in situ hybridization studies have revealed pathways supporting the endocrine function of the pituitary, there is little known about the coordinated cellular response of the pituitary to the hypoxia. The objective of this study was to use transcriptomics and systems analysis to determine significantly altered biological processes in the late gestation ovine fetal pituitary one hour after a 30 minute period of hypoxia, produced by lowering the inspired oxygen content in the maternal inspired gas. We found that the acute response to 30 min of transient hypoxia in the late-gestation fetus results in reduced cellular metabolism and a pattern of gene expression that is consistent with cellular oxygen and ATP starvation. The response is not consistent with gene regulation by HIF1A .
Project description:The physiological response to hypoxia in the fetus has been extensively studied with regard to redistribution of fetal combined ventricular output and sparing of oxygen delivery to fetal brain and heart. However, little is known about the biochemical and molecular response of the fetal brain to transient hypoxia. The present study was designed to use transcriptomics and systems biology modeling to identify major biological responses of the fetal hypothalamus to transient hypoxia. We also investigated the effect of ketamine, an FDA approved anesthetic that has anti-inflammatory properties in various tissues. Chronically catheterized fetal sheep (122±5 days gestation) were subjected to 30 min hypoxia (relative reduction in PaO2 ~50 %) caused by infusion of nitrogen into the inspired gas of the pregnant ewe. Messenger RNA was isolated from fetal hypothalamus collected 24 hours after hypoxia, and was analyzed for gene expression using the Agilent 15.5k ovine microarray. Hypoxia increased expression of 280 and decreased expression of 357 genes. Genes increased by hypoxia were associated with immune responses, consistent with stimulation by lipopolysaccharide. Pretreatment of the fetuses with ketamine reduced immune/inflammation responses. Immunohistochemical analysis revealed that the number of microglia/macrophages in the anterior hypothalamus was increased by hypoxia and that the increase was blunted by ketamine. We conclude that transient hypoxia stimulates an inflammatory/immune response in the fetal hypothalamus and that transcriptomics/systems biology modeling is a useful and valid tool for investigation of biological function in the fetal sheep.