Postnatal interventions to increase growth have not been demonstrated to reduce long-term consequences.
Although the diagnosis is now easily made, as yet there are no treatments available for established. Intrauterine growth restriction (IUGR) has both immediate and long-term consequences for the affected fetus, resulting in increased perinatal morbidity and mortality, growth failure, intellectual deficits and an increased risk of adult diseases including cardiovascular disease, diabetes and stroke. The implications of Developmental Programming are profound in swine. In fact, the concept is an extreme shift in the vision of the factors conditioning adult phenotype and supposes a drastic change from a gene-centric perspective, only modified by lifestyle and nutritional strategies during juvenile development and adulthood, to a more holistic approach in which environmental, parental, and prenatal conditions are strongly determining postnatal development and homeostasis. Compelling evidences suggest that both overnutrition and undernutrition may modify the intrauterine environment of the conceptus and may alter the expression of its genome and therefore its phenotype during prenatal and postnatal life.
The concept of Developmental Programming addresses, from a large set of epidemiological evidences in human beings and translational studies in animal models, both the importance of genetic predispo sition and the determinant role of maternal nutrition during pregnancy on adult morphomics and homeostasis. Specifically, the adequate development of the intestine is also important for neonatal survival and postnatal growth to improve neonatal absorption of nutrients and other substances like immunoglobulins. In conclusion, protection of brain development is a priority in IUGR swine offspring independently of sex but female fetuses also supports the development of other structures (total viscera and, specifically, intestine) of paramount relevance to improve survival after birth. Female IUGR fetuses had a higher weight of total viscera relative to body weight (P<0.02 for both) and a higher intestine weight relative to carcass weight (P<0.05). Furthermore, the present study also gives evidence of sex-related differences in different organs.
IUGR piglets showed a higher brain-to-body weight-ratio (P<0.0001), confirming the existence of " brain-sparing effect ".
Out of them, 16 (8 males and 8 females) were representative of the mean size and weight of the crossbred strain (1402.2☓21.4 g body weight) and 27 (14 males and 13 females) were representative of piglets affected by spontaneous IUGR (635.7☑59.1 g). Hence, the present study evaluated morphometric differences of 43 newborns piglets (crossbred Duroc x Iberian). There is strong evidence that development of other organs is also protected, although such effects would be modulated by offspring sex. Current knowledge evidences that developmental response to IUGR, in swine and other mammalian species, mainly prioritizes brain development at the expense of other organs (" brain-sparing effect ") to improve survival. Thus, this species is a useful model for the study of this disorder, both in animal production and welfare and as a translational biomedical model. Sex-related differences in prenatal development of IUGR piglets The appearance of Intrauterine Growth Restriction (IUGR) in some of the littermates is a common and spontaneous event in swine.
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