title: Maternal perinatal undernutrition attenuates T-cell function in adult male rat offspring.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  We investigated the impact of maternal food restriction during gestation and lactation on the number and function of peripheral T cells in adult male offspring.
  
  
  METHODS
  Pregnant rats either received ad libitum (control) feed or were 50% food restricted (FR) from day zero of gestation to delivery and during the lactation period. After weaning, pups from control and FR mother rats were fed normally until they reached 8 weeks of age. At 8 weeks of age, blood parameters, plasma cytokine levels, and T cell number and function were determined in 10 male offspring from each group.
  
  
  RESULTS
  FR offspring exhibited decreased numbers of total and CD4+ and CD8+ T lymphocytes and a significant reduction in plasma IL-2 and IL-7 compared with control offspring. In addition, T lymphocytes from FR offspring exhibited a 2-fold decrease in IL-2- and IL-7-mediated AKT and STAT5 phosphorylation, altered actin polymerization, and diminished superantigen-mediated proliferation and cytokine production as compared with control offspring.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  aken together, these findings suggest that early undernutrition, particularly during the prenatal and lactation periods, attenuates T cell survival and the immune response.
authors.affiliation: Fetal Programming of Diseases Research Chair, College of Science, King Saud University, Saudi Arabia. badr73@yahoo.com
authors.forename: Gamal
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Badr
authors.forename: Mohamed
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Mohany
mesh_terms: D000199:Actins / Q000378:metabolism; D000818:Animals; D015496:CD4-Positive T-Lymphocytes / Q000276:immunology / Q000378:metabolism; D018414:CD8-Positive T-Lymphocytes / Q000276:immunology / Q000378:metabolism; D005260:Female; D007376:Interleukin-2 / Q000097:blood; D015851:Interleukin-7 / Q000097:blood; D007774:Lactation; D008297:Male; D044342:Malnutrition / Q000276:immunology*; D039382:Maternal Nutritional Physiological Phenomena; D010766:Phosphorylation; D011247:Pregnancy; D051057:Proto-Oncogene Proteins c-akt / Q000378:metabolism; D051381:Rats; D017207:Rats, Sprague-Dawley; D050799:STAT5 Transcription Factor / Q000378:metabolism; D013601:T-Lymphocytes / Q000276:immunology*
chemical_list: D000199:Actins; D007376:Interleukin-2; D015851:Interleukin-7; D050799:STAT5 Transcription Factor; D051057:Proto-Oncogene Proteins c-akt