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DEVELOPMENTAL PHYSIOLOGY AND PREGNANCY
1Center for Perinatal Biology, Loma Linda University, School of Medicine, Loma Linda, California; and 2Obstetrics/Gynecology, University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center, Oklahoma City, Oklahoma
Submitted 27 January 2006 ; accepted in final form 29 June 2006
This study was designed to test the hypothesis that long-term hypoxia (LTH) increases fetal plasma leptin and fetal adipose or placental leptin expression and alters hypothalamic and adrenocortical leptin receptor (OB-R) expression. Pregnant ewes were maintained at high altitude (3,820 m) from day 30 to 
130 days of gestation. Reduced PO2 was maintained in the laboratory by nitrogen infusion through a maternal tracheal catheter. On day 132, normoxic control and LTH fetuses underwent surgical implantation of vascular catheters (n = 6 for each group). Five days after surgery, maternal and fetal arterial blood samples were collected for leptin, insulin, and glucose analysis. Placental tissue, periadrenal fat, and fetal hypothalami and adrenal glands were collected from additional control (n = 7) and LTH (n = 8) fetuses for analysis of leptin mRNA by quantitative, real-time, RT-PCR (qRT-PCR). There was a significant (P < 0.03) elevation in fetal plasma leptin in the LTH fetuses (3.5 ± 0.7 ng/ml) vs. control (1.1 ± 0.1 ng/ml). There were no differences in either glucose or insulin concentrations between the two groups. Periadrenal adipose leptin mRNA was significantly higher in the LTH group compared with control, as was placental leptin expression. The levels of leptin mRNA in adipose were 70 times higher vs. placenta. LTH significantly reduced expression of OB-Ra (short-isoform) in the hypothalamus (P = 0.0156), while resulting in a significant increase in adrenal OB-Rb (long-form) expression (P < 0.03). Our data suggest that leptin is a hypoxia-inducible gene in the ovine fetus and OB-R expression is altered by LTH. These changes may be responsible in part, for our previously observed alterations in fetal hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal function following LTH.
OB-R; hypothalamus; adrenal
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