ARRA: Biomedical Research Core Centers (P30) through Fetal Programming

The proposed Center will be in the area of Fetal Programming as a mechanism promoting the development of obesityinduced cardiovascular diseases in adult offspring (Figure 1 ). The research problem to be addressed is an extension of the NIH-funded COBRE in Obesity and Cardiovascular Diseases (atherosclerosis, hypertension, thrombosis), and related to the primary research focus within the GCNS. In the NIH-funded COBRE, investigators use high fat (HF) feeding in adult mice as a model common to all projects to identify mechanisms linking diet-induced obesity to cardiovascular diseases. We propose to complement and extend these studies by recruit of a faculty member with interests in fetal programming through nutritional manipulation (e.g., over or under nutrition, dietary salt content, dietary fat or cholesterol content) during development as a mechanism increasing susceptibility to obesity and cardiovascular diseases during adulthood.This powerful approach, supported by specialized research cores for analysis of obesity and cardiovascular diseases, can be used to contrast effects of nutritional manipulation (e.g., high fat feeding) during development to the level of disease induced by feeding adult offspring a high fat diet. We provide below the rationale for the study of fetal programming as a mechanism promoting obesity-induced cardiovascular diseases.