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Maternal Adipose Tissue Expansion, A Missing Link In The Prediction Of Birth Weight Centile, Eleanor M. Jarvie, Frances M. Stewart, Jane E. Ramsay, Elizabeth A. Brown, Barbara J. Meyer, Gunilla Olivecrona, Bruce A. Griffin, Dilys J. Freeman

Illawarra Health and Medical Research Institute

Context

Maternal body mass index (BMI) is associated with increased birth weight but does not explain all the variance in fetal adiposity. Objective

To assess the contribution of maternal body fat distribution to offspring birth weight and adiposity. Design

Longitudinal study throughout gestation and at delivery. Setting

Women recruited at 12 weeks of gestation and followed up at 26 and 36 weeks. Cord blood was collected at delivery. Patients

Pregnant women (n = 45) with BMI 18.0 to 46.3 kg/m² and healthy pregnancy outcome. Methods

Maternal first trimester abdominal subcutaneous and visceral adipose tissue thickness (SAT and VAT) was …

Involvement Of Akt In Er-To-Golgi Transport Of Scap/Srebp: A Link Between A Key Cell Proliferative Pathway And Membrane Synthesis, X Du, Ika Kristiana, Jenny Wong, A Brown

Illawarra Health and Medical Research Institute

Akt is a critical regulator of cell growth, proliferation, and survival that is activated by phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase (PI3K). We investigated the effect of PI3K inhibition on activation of sterol regulatory element binding protein-2 (SREBP-2), a master regulator of cholesterol homeostasis. SREBP-2 processing increased in response to various cholesterol depletion approaches (including statin treatment) and this increase was blunted by treatment with a potent and specific inhibitor of PI3K, LY294002, or when a plasmid encoding a dominant-negative form of Akt (DN-Akt) was expressed. LY294002 also suppressed SREBP-2 processing induced by insulin-like growth factor-1. Furthermore, LY294002 treatment down-regulated SREBP-2 or -1c gene …