Most recently, in utero exposure to a "Western" diet has been shown to alter the offspring's intestinal microbes leaving a "lard legacy," presumably through the alteration of maternal microbes that are passed onto offspring during delivery and lactation.
We hypothesise that alteration of maternal creatine homeostasis occurs during pregnancy to ensure adequate levels of this essential substrate are available for maternal tissues, the placenta and fetus.
Club foot formation can possibly be due to (i) indirect action of metal, (ii) alteration of maternal physiology, which disturbs the hormonal balance in mother, or (iii) direct effect on the tissue primordial of foot [ 38].
To determine whether the source of the circulating rejuvenating factor was maternal (e.g., ovary, decidua) or fetal, we tested the effect of pseudopregnancy (a state in which transient alteration of maternal pituitary and ovarian hormones mimics the changes during the first half of normal gestation) on muscle regeneration.
Any alteration of maternal and/or fetal TH availability during critical periods of TH-dependent action may have a detrimental impact on the developing fetal brain, as previously demonstrated in animal and human studies (Morreale de Escobar et al. 2000; Pop et al. 2003).
These results paralleled our current findings and suggest a decreased activation of the GnRH receptor may adversely impact maternal care through direct or transsynaptic alterations of the maternal behavior circuits.
During pregnancy various interactions occur between structural alterations of the maternal brain and placental metabolism.
Since no transcriptional activity occurs prior to fertilization [22], we postulate that the decreased potential of aged eggs reflects alterations of some maternal components.
As creatine delivery to the placenta and fetus appears to be of maternal origin in precocial species, changes to maternal creatine homeostasis maybe a necessary adjustment of maternal metabolism to pregnancy in much the same way that alterations to glucose, amino acid, carbohydrate, lipid and fatty acid metabolism are required to support growing maternal tissues, the placenta and fetus [ 2].
The design of our study was based on an alteration of the maternal environment of two inbred strains of mice, C57 and DBA, which were fostered with non-related mother strains.
