Grant: Travel Awards - Institute Community Support

Fetal growth restriction (FGR) with infants small for their gestational age at birth, is a major contributor to perinatal illness and death, and for risk of later adverse health outcomes with heart disease, diabetes and neurodevelopment disability. The studies proposed seek to determine the extent to which maternal undernourishment as a causative factor for FGR, also disrupts placental development leading to lowered oxygen in the fetus and thereby increased "oxidative stressors" as potential mediators of injury. The experimental design will use a well studied model of maternal nutrient restriction in pregnant guinea pigs shown to result in placental structural abnormalities and FGR, along with comparative study from human pregnancies with data obtained from a large tertiary care centre patient population. If maternal under nourishment is found to result in lowered oxygen and "oxidative stressors" in relation to the degree of FGR, then treatment strategies aimed at decreasing these stressors can be tested.