Prenatal exposure to lipopolysaccharide results in increases in blood pressure and body weight in rats.
OBJECTIVE
To investigate the effects of prenatal exposure to lipopolysaccharide (LPS) on blood pressure and body weight of offspring in rats.


METHODS
Sixteen healthy, pregnant rats were randomly divided into 2 groups. The rats in the LPS group were injected intraperitoneally with LPS (0.79 mg/kg) on the d 8, d 10, and d 12 of gestation. Those in the control group were only treated with normal saline. After delivery, all offspring were weighed and blood pressure was measured by the tailcuff method once every 2 weeks from the 6th to the 24th week. In the 15th week, their food intake was weighed every day. At the end of the 24th week, the rats were killed by decapitation. Abdominal adipose tissues were weighed, and the serum level of leptin was detected by radioimmunoassay.


RESULTS
The offspring with prenatal LPS exposure showed increased systemic arterial pressure, heavier body weight, elevated food intake, increased adipose tissue weight, and increased circulating leptin compared with the controls.


CONCLUSIONS
Prenatal exposure to LPS leads to increases in blood pressure and body weight in rats.
Wei
Yan-Ling
YL
Institute of Materia Medica, School of Basic Medicine, Third Military Medical University, Chongqing 400038, China.
Li
Xiao-Hui
XH
Zhou
Jian-Zhi
JZ
D000273:Adipose Tissue / Q000033:anatomy & histology; D000818:Animals; D001794:Blood Pressure / Q000187:drug effects*; D001835:Body Weight / Q000187:drug effects*; D004435:Eating; D005260:Female; D005333:Fetus / Q000187:drug effects* / Q000502:physiology; D006801:Humans; D006973:Hypertension / Q000209:etiology; D020738:Leptin / Q000097:blood; D008070:Lipopolysaccharides / Q000494:pharmacology*; D008297:Male; D011247:Pregnancy; D011297:Prenatal Exposure Delayed Effects; D011897:Random Allocation; D051381:Rats; D017207:Rats, Sprague-Dawley
D020738:Leptin; D008070:Lipopolysaccharides