Cardiovascular and Renal Developmental Programming

Associate Professor Jane Black

We study how factors such as malnutrition, maternal alcohol consumption and vitamin D deficiency influence the growth of the baby whilst in the mother’s womb. We are also interested in determining how exposure to these factors in pregnancy influences the long-term renal and cardiovascular health of the individual. We also investigate the effects of premature birth on the development of the heart and kidney, and the consequences to postnatal renal and cardiovascular health.

It is important to understand how these early developmental insults affect heart and kidney development, since the functional units of these organs (the cardiomyocytes and nephrons, respectively) are only formed in early development. A reduced complement of these functional units at birth is likely to adversely impact on cardiac and renal health.

Research Group

Senior Members

Dr Lina Gubhaju

Dr Monika Zimanyi

Research Assistant

Ms Kom Yin

PhD Students

Mr Jonathan Bensley

Ms Oksan Gezmish

Ms Vivian Nguyen

Ms Megan Sutherland

Ms Vladislava Zohdi

Grants

NHMRC Project Grant:

• Does maladaptive remodelling of the heart in response to preterm birth lead to long-term cardiovascular risk? (2011-2013)
• Why is the kidney vulnerable to preterm birth? (2011-2014)

Publications

2010

Maladaptive cardiac remodeling following preterm birth: implications for long-term cardiovascular disease. Eur Heart J 2010; 31: 2058-2066. Bensley JG, Stacy VK, De Matteo R, Harding R, Black MJ. 

Effect of maternal protein restriction during pregnancy and lactation on the number of cardiomyocytes in the post-proliferative weanling rat heart. Anat Rec (Hoboken) 2010; 293: 431-437. Lim K, Zimanyi MA, Black MJ.

Increased tissue kallikrein expression in type 2 diabetes. Diabetologia 2010; 53: 779-785. Campbell DJ, Kladis A, Zhang Y, Jenkins AJ, Prior DL, Black MJ, Yii M, Kenny JF, Kelly DJ.

Maternal vitamin D deficiency leads to cardiac hypertrophy in rat offspring. Reprod Sci 2010; 17:168-176. Gezmish O, Tare M, Parkington HC, Morley R, Porrello ER, Bubb KJ, Black MJ.

2009

Is nephrogenesis affected by pre-term birth? Studies in a non-human primate model. Am J Physiol Renal Physiol 2009; 297:F1668-F1677.Gubhaju L, Zulli A, Black MJ.

Chronic type 1 diabetes in spontaneously hypertensive rats leads to exacerbated cardiac fibrosis. Cardiovas Pathol 2009; Sept 9 Epub ahead of print. Black MJ, D’Amore A, Auden A, Stamp L, Osicka T, Panagiotopoulos S, Jerums G.

The effects of postnatal retinoic acid administration on nephron endowment in the preterm baboon kidney, Pediatr Res 2009; 65:397-402. Sutherland MR, Gubhaju L, Stahlman MT, Yoder B, Black MJ.

The influence of naturally occurring differences in birth weight on ventricular cardiomyocyte number in sheep. Anat Rec (Hoboken) 2009; 292: 29-37.  Stacy V, DeMatteo R, Brew N, Wreford N, Probyn M, Harding R, Black MJ.

2008

Factors influencing mammalian kidney development – implications for health in adult life. Adv Anat Embryol Cell Biol 2008; 196:1-78. Moritz KM, Wintour EM, Black MJ, Bertram JF, Caruana G.

Immunohistochemical localization of TRA-1-60, TRA-1-81, GCTM-2 and podocalyxin in the developing baboon kidney. Histochem Cell Biol 2008; 129: 651-657. Gubhaju L, Laslett A, Bertram JF, Zulli A, Black MJ.

Vitamin D deficiency during pregnancy and lactation stimulates nephrogenesis in rat offspring. Pediatr Nephrol 2008; 23: 55-61. Maka N, Makrakis J, Parkington HC, Tare M, Morley R, Black MJ.

Embryonic stem cell markers are present within rabbit atherosclerotic plaques. Histol Histopathol 2008; 23: 741-746. Zulli A, Buxton BF, Black MJ, Hare DL.

2007

Administration of retinoic acid during pregnancy prevents the reduction in nephron endowment associated with maternal protein restriction. Pediatr Nephrol 2007; 22: 1861-1867.  Makrakis J, Zimanyi MA, Black MJ.

Nephrogenesis and the renal renin-angiotensin system in fetal sheep: effects of intrauterine growth restriction during late gestation. Am J Physiol Regul Integr Comp Physiol 2007; 293: R1267-R1273. Zohdi V, Moritz KM, Bubb KJ, Cock ML, Wreford N, Harding R, Black MJ.

Intrauterine growth restriction delays cardiomyocyte maturation and alters coronary artery function in the fetal sheep. J Physiol 2007; 578: 871-881. Bubb KJ, Cock ML, Black MJ, Dodic M, Boon W-M, Parkington HC, Harding R, Tare M.