Fetal Development and Adult Disease Laboratory
Dr James Armitage
How does a mother’s diet in pregnancy affect the cardiovascular health of her offspring?
The prevalence of obesity and related disease is rising worldwide due to a combination of adult risk factors. The environment encountered in utero may also affect the way that fetuses grow, making them more susceptible to developing obesity and hypertension. We study the role of the brain, sympathetic nervous system and kidney in the genesis of obesity related hypertension in adulthood. We also examine how being born to a mother, who was diabetic or ate a diet high in fat, low in protein or high in folic acid in pregnancy affects fetal development and adult disease.
Maternal diets that are very high in folic acid result in a retardation of embryonic kidney growth. The image below is of a developing rat kidney from a mother fed a high folate diet. It shows a reduced number of branching points compared with the control on the left.
Along with Dr Luise Cullen-McEwen we have shown that maternal diabetes can result in abnormal kidney development in the offspring. The image below shows that exposure to a very high level of glucose during development can result in aberrant kidney growth. Here there is a duplex ureter and two abnormal kidneys growing where there would normally be a single organ.
Research Group
PhD Students
Mr Ryan Wood-Bradley
Ms Sarah Henry
Mr Benjamin Barzel
Collaborators
Dr Luise Cullen- McEwen, Monash University
Professor John Bertram, Monash University
Dr Andreas Fouras, Monash University
Professor Geoff Head, Baker IDI heart and Diabetes Institute
Dr Bang Bui University of Melbourne
Professor Algis Vingrys, University of Melbourne
Grants
NHMRC Project Grant:
• A neurogenic basis of obesity hypertension: Role of adipokines and ghrelin in regulating sympathetic vasomotor activity (2009-2011).
• Ocular perfusion pressure: A modifiable risk factor for glaucoma (2009-2011).
Monash Fellowship:
• How might exposure to maternal fat rich diets during development ‘programme’ the development of obesity related hypertension? (2007-2012)
National Heart Foundation Grant-In-Aid:
• A vicious cycle involving adipokines, oxidative stress and renal sympathetic neuroeffector dysfunction in obesity (2009-2010).
• Nephron endowment: are more nephrons necessarily better? (2010-2011)
• How does maternal diet programme offspring obesity & related hypertension; A pivotal role for the sympathetic nervous system (2010-2011)
Publications
Provisional Patent: Fouras A, Sheard GA, Curtis M, Armitage JA. Method and device for application of fluid forces to cells. AU201101475 April 21st 2011
2011
A design-based method for estimating glomerular number in the developing kidney. Am J Physiol Renal Physiol 2011: 300(6); F1448-53. Cullen-McEwen LA, Armitage JA, Nyengaard JR, Moritz KM, Bertram JF.
Intrauterine growth restriction in the absence of postnatal 'catch-up' growth leads to improved whole body insulin sensitivity in rat offspring. Pediatr Res 2011 (In Press). Lim KYJ, Armitage JA, Stefanidis A, Oldfield BJ, Black MJ.
Biomechanics: a key factor in understanding biology, pathology and in developing pharmacological solutions. Current Pharmaceutical Biotechnology 2011 (In Press). Jamison RA, Armitage JA, Carbury J, Kitchen MJ, Hooper SB, Fouras A.
Estimating nephron number in the developing kidney using the physical disector/fractionator combination. In: Methods in Molecular Biology: Methods and Protocols to Study Kidney Development 2011 (In Press). Cullen McEwen LA, Armitage JA, Nyengaard JR, Bertram JF.
2010
The role of blood pressure in glaucoma. Clin Exp Optom 2011; 94(2): 133-49. He Z, Vingrys AJ, Armitage JA, Bui BV.
Sodium appetite in adult rats following omega-3 polyunsaturated fatty acid deficiency in early development. Appetite 2010; 55(3); 393-7. Weisinger RS, Armitage JA, Chen N, Begg DP, Mathai ML, Jayasooriya AP, Sinclair AJ, Weisinger HS.
Exposure to a High Fat Diet Alters Leptin Sensitivity and Elevates Renal Sympathetic Nerve Activity and Arterial Pressure in Rabbits. Hypertension 2010; 55(4): 862- 868. Prior LJ, Eikelis N, Armitage JA, Davern PJ, Burke SL, Montani JP, Barzel B, Head GA.
2009
The Role of Maternal Diet in Programming Obesity, Hypertension and Metabolic Disease. Samoa Medical Journal 2009; 1: 8-15. Elisaia AJ, Barzel B, Wood-Bradley RJ, Henry SL, Cullen McEwen LA, Bertram JF, Armitage JA.
Neonatal overfeeding leads to developmental programming of adult obesity: you are what you ate. J Physiol 2009; 587(Pt 11): 2419. Prior LJ, Armitage JA.
Altered responsiveness of the kidney to activation of the renal nerves in fat-fed rabbits. Am J Physiol Regul Integr Comp Physiol 2009; 296(6): R1889-1896. Michaels S, Eppel GA, Burke SL, Head GA, Armitage JA, Carrol JF, Malpas SC, Evans RE.
2008
Maternal dietary supplementation with saturated, but not mono-unsaturated or poly-unsaturated fatty acids leads to tissue specific inhibition of offspring Na/K ATPase. J Physiol 2008; 586(pt 20): 5013- 5022. Armitage JA, Gupta S, Woods C, Jensen RI, Samuelsson AM, Fuller W, Shattock MJ, Poston L, Taylor PD.
Obesity in pregnancy and the consequences for offspring health. Frontiers in Hormone Research 2008; 36: 73-84. Armitage JA, Taylor PD.
2007
Programmed aortic dysfunction and reduced Na+, K+ATPase activity present in first generation offspring of lard-fed rats does not persist to the second generation. Exp Physiol 2007; 92(3): 583-589. Armitage JA, Ishibashi A, Balachandran AA, Jensen RI, Poston L, Taylor PD.
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