Marlisa Gatto

Effects of maternal obesity during pregnancy on placental indices of oxidative stress and activation of the unfolded protein response. Evidence derived from human studies and from animal models shows that maternal obesity can markedly increase the risk of heart disease in the offspring, even when young and when the progeny are fed a healthy diet and they themselves do not become obese. This highlights that it is something about exposure of the embryo or fetus to an obesity environment during gestation itself that either triggers a fetal origin of cardiovascular dysfunction and/or increases the risk of heart disease in the adult offspring. Therefore, this project will test the hypothesis that placental dysfunction during maternal obesity during pregnancy provides a link between the maternal phenotype and adverse cardiovascular outcomes in the offspring. Specifically, my work will determine the effects of maternal obesity during pregnancy on placental markers of oxidative stress and the activation of the unfolded protein response at the cytosolic, ER and mitochondrial levels. The work will involve PCR, Western blot and histological analysis.