Responses to saline drinking water in offspring born to ewes fed high salt during pregnancy
2010
Digby, S.N. | Blache, D. | Masters, D.G. | Revell, D.K.
We have studied the fetal programming of lambs born to ewes exposed to high salt during pregnancy. In the present study, we hypothesise that salt-programmed lambs may not need to drink as much saline water as control lambs and that voluntary feed intake of salt-programmed lambs would be reduced. We used two groups of lambs born to ewes fed either a high salt (13% NaCl) diet during pregnancy (S-lambs; n=12) or control animals born to ewes fed a conventional (0.5% NaCl) diet during pregnancy (C-lambs; n=12). Animals were offered ad libitum amounts of saline drinking water containing 1.5% NaCl for 2 days. Results indicated that there was a significant difference between fetal origin of the lamb (i.e. between C and S-lambs) and time (day 1 and 2) on water intake (P=0.055), urinary output (P=0.002), and sodium excretion (P=0.002). There was an interaction between fetal origin of the lambs and time (day 1 and 2) on the area under the curve (AUC) for the plasma concentration of aldosterone (P=0.017). Aldosterone concentration for C-lambs ranged from 167 to 196pg/ml over days 1 and 2, whilst S-lambs reduced their aldosterone by two-thirds from day 1 to 2, from 214±24 to 74±8pg/ml. A novel result was a marked difference in feed intake between C and S-lambs, where S-lambs consumed approximately 0.5kg DM/day (35%) less than C-lambs which was associated with a decrease in insulin secretion with time in both S and C-lambs. In conclusion, feeding a high salt diet to pregnant ewes affected the physiological responses of their offspring to the consumption of saline water during a period of 2 days illustrating that fetal programming changed the temporal pattern of how the offspring adapt to a load of ingested salt.
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