title: Maternal nutrition during gestation and carotid arterial compliance in the adult offspring: the Dutch famine birth cohort.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Experimental evidence indicates that maternal undernutrition during gestation may program hypertension in the offspring. We investigated whether maternal undernutrition leads to increased arterial stiffness.
  
  
  METHODS
  We measured carotid artery lumen diameter (LD), distensibility (DC), stiffness (beta), and compliance (CC) by M-mode ultrasound in 673 individuals, aged 56-61 years, who had been born as term singletons around the time of the 1944-45 Dutch famine.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Maternal famine exposure had no effect on any of the measures of carotid size or stiffness in the offspring. Low maternal weight at the end of pregnancy and low birth weight were associated with decreased LD (0.01 mm/kg maternal weight, sex-adjusted P < 0.001; 0.1 mm/kg birth weight, sex-adjusted P = 0.08) and CC (0.002 mm2/kPa per kg maternal weight, sex-adjusted P = 0.001; 0.03 mm2/kPa per kg birth weight, sex-adjusted P = 0.03), but neither was associated with increased beta, or decreased DC. These effects were not attenuated by adjusting for maternal protein/carbohydrate ratio in the third trimester. The association of low birth weight with increased CC diminished after adjusting for maternal weight. The association of maternal weight with CC was smaller when adjusted for LD.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Our findings suggest that small maternal size, not poor maternal diet, in late gestation programs decreased arterial compliance in the adult offspring by affecting vessel size rather than vessel wall stiffness.
authors.affiliation: Department of Clinical Epidemiology and Biostatistics, Academic Medical Center, University of Amsterdam, Amsterdam, The Netherlands. r.c.painter@amc.uva.nl
authors.forename: Rebecca C
authors.initials: RC
authors.lastname: Painter
authors.forename: Susanne R
authors.initials: SR
authors.lastname: de Rooij
authors.forename: Patrick M
authors.initials: PM
authors.lastname: Bossuyt
authors.forename: Eric
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: de Groot
authors.forename: Wim J
authors.initials: WJ
authors.lastname: Stok
authors.forename: Clive
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Osmond
authors.forename: David J
authors.initials: DJ
authors.lastname: Barker
authors.forename: Otto P
authors.initials: OP
authors.lastname: Bleker
authors.forename: Tessa J
authors.initials: TJ
authors.lastname: Roseboom
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D002339:Carotid Arteries / Q000502:physiology* / Q000648:ultrastructure; D015331:Cohort Studies; D004548:Elasticity; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D006973:Hypertension / Q000209:etiology; D007230:Infant, Low Birth Weight / Q000502:physiology*; D007231:Infant, Newborn; D008297:Male; D044342:Malnutrition / Q000150:complications*; D008875:Middle Aged; D011247:Pregnancy; D011297:Prenatal Exposure Delayed Effects; D039401:Prenatal Nutritional Physiological Phenomena