Grant: Operating Grant

Striking news recently highlighted that (1) 1 in 16 American women who give birth - and they number more than 250,000 each year - has diabetes (Los Angeles Times, December 17, 2010); and (2) maternal obesity and diabetes are linked to increased risk of childhood chronic kidney disease (CKD) (American Society of Nephrology Kidney News (Vol. 2(12), December 2010)), underscoring that maternal diabetes is a serious medical complication that affects both mother and baby, even in the 21st century. In general, the prevalence of gestational diabetes is 3-14% of pregnancies world-wide. In Canada, the incidence of gestational diabetes is 3.7 percent in non-Aboriginal women population and reaches 8-18 percent in Aboriginal women (www.diabetes.ca). During last 5 years, we have found that mice with untreated diabetes during pregnancy give birth to underweight babies whose kidneys display serious malformations. As adults, some of these babies will suffer from hypertension, glucose intolerance and chronic kidney disease. These babies are victims of what is known as perinatal programming, a complex and mysterious condition that affects embryos and adults alike. In the current grant proposal, we aim to elucidate the mechanisms related to this phenomenon of maternal diabetes induced perinatal programming and develop the prevention strategies in animal model in order to prevent diseases in children whose mothers suffer from gestational diabetes.