The effects of maternal obesity on offspring health focussed on the role of adipose tissue miRNA

• Grant number: 19/22635-4
• Support type: Scholarships abroad - Research
• Effective date (Start): January 04, 2021
• Effective date (End): January 03, 2022
• Field of knowledge: Health Sciences - Nutrition - Nutrition Biochemistry
• Principal researcher: Luciana Pellegrini Pisani
• Grantee: Luciana Pellegrini Pisani
• Host: Susan Ozanne
• Home Institution: Instituto de Saúde e Sociedade (ISS). Universidade Federal de São Paulo (UNIFESP). Campus Baixada Santista. Santos , SP, Brazil
• Research place: University of Cambridge, England

Abstract

Maternal obesity during pregnancy and/or lactation is associated with an increased risk of obesity and related metabolic disorders in the offspring throughout life. Molecular mechanisms associated with maternal obesity in the offspring, are still not completely understood. Recently, several groups are studying the effects of dysregulated miRNAs expression on the onset of a variety of metabolic diseases. MiRNAs are short endogenous non-coding RNAs that are able to regulate the cellular protein translation and disturbances in miRNA expression profile have been related to pathological conditions such as obesity and type 2 diabetes. Thus, the aims of the study are to establish the full spectrum of miRNAs programmed in adipose tissue by maternal obesity; determine which miRNAs identified are programmed cell autonomously and expressed in programmed pre-adipocytes in vitro. For this happen, after the animals' treatment will be made small RNA sequencing for miRNA profiling; and isolation of primary preadipocytes and differentiation in-vitro. In summary, with the experimental data from this study, we will be able to provide a better understanding of the mechanisms involved in the programming of adipose tissue microRNA by maternal obesity, as well as present new putative targets for obesity diseases therapy.