Medicine and Health Sciences Commons^™

Quantifying Mid-Pregnancy Placental Metabolism In Guinea Pigs Fed A Lifelong Western Diet, Mary-Ellen E.T Empey

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Maternal consumption of a Western diet (WD) has been linked to alterations in fetoplacental metabolic programming and risk for the exposed fetus to develop obesity, cardiovascular disease, and type II diabetes mellitus. It may also cause oxidative damage to the placental mitochondria. This thesis investigated the metabolic effects of a WD on placentae using a guinea pig model of pregnancy and hyperpolarized ¹³C MRI for metabolic quantification. It was hypothesized that placental glycolytic metabolism would increase, and placental oxidative metabolism would decrease in WD-fed sows. Control diet- and WD-fed, pregnant sows underwent metabolic MRI at 33 days gestation and …