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Cambridge Cardiovascular

 

Research

Supervisor: Prof Susan Ozanne

Title: Molecular mechanisms underlying the programming of cardiovascular disease by maternal diet-induced obesity

Abstract: The environment met by the fetus during critical periods of life (in utero and early post-natal) can impact its long term health. In particular, a suboptimal maternal diet during pregnancy can increase the offspring risk of developing cardiovascular disease in adult life. Previous studies in the Ozanne laboratory using a well established mouse model have demonstrated that maternal diet-induced obesity programs cardiac remodelling in the offspring; however, the effects of a combined exposure to maternal and post-natal high-calorie diet on the offspring cardiovascular health are poorly established. We aim to identify new molecular mechanisms underlying these effects, focusing our attention on epigenetic mechanisms.

Conference proceeding

  • 2017 HFA, Paris - poster
  • 2017 HFWR, Les Diableretes – poster selected for Young Investigator Award
  • 2016 BHF Cardiovascular Early Careers Event, Cambridge (UK) – talk prize
  • 2016 Annual BHF Student Meeting, Glasgow (UK) – talk
  • 2015 Annual BHF Student Meeting, Cambridge (UK) – poster
  • 2015  IMS Student Symposium, Cambridge (UK) – talk
  • 2015 IUBMB/Sbbq, Foz do Iguacu (Brazil) – poster prize
  • 2014 Frontiers in Metabolism, EMBO Symposium, Heidelberg (Germany) – poster
  • 2014 Annual BHF Student Meeting, Manchester (UK) – poster
  • 2013 IMS Student Symposium, Cambridge (UK) – poster prize
  • 2012 Epigenetic mechanisms in development and disease 2012, Leeds, UK - poster

Publications

Key publications: 

de Almeida Faria J, Duque-Guimarães D, Carpenter AA, Loche E, Ozanne SE. A post-weaning obesogenic diet exacerbates the detrimental effects of maternal obesity on offspring insulin signaling in adipose tissue. Sci Rep. 2017 Mar 24;7:44949.

Fernandez-Twinn DS, Gascoin G, Musial B, Carr S, Duque-Guimaraes D, Blackmore HL, Alfaradhi MZ, Loche E, Sferruzzi-Perri AN, Fowden AL, Ozanne SE. Exercise rescues obese mothers' insulin sensitivity, placental hypoxia and male offspring insulin sensitivity. Sci Rep. 2017 Mar 14;7:44650. 

Thienpont B, Aronsen J, Robinson EL, Okkenhaug H, Loche E, Ferrini A, Brien P, Bergmann O, Alkass K,  Tomasso A, Tingare A, Sjaastad I, Reik W, Roderick HL. Methylation of H3K9 by Ehmts protects against pathological cardiac hypertrophy. J Clin Invest. 2017 Jan 3;127(1):335-348

Loche E, Ozanne SE. Early nutrition, epigenetics and cardiovascular disease. Curr Opin Lipidol. 2016 Oct;27(5):449-58.

Holland ML, Lowe R, Caton PW, Gemma C, Carbajosa G, Danson AF, Carpenter AA, Loche E, Ozanne SE, Rakyan VK. Gene-environment induced epigenetic dynamics at rDNA in the mouse. Science. 2016 Jul 29;353(6298):495-8.

Loche E, Ozanne SE. Non-Genetic Transmission of Obesity - It's in Your Epigenes. Trends Endocrinol Metab. 2016 Jun; 27(6):349-50.

BHF 4-Year Programme PhD Student
 Elena  Loche

Affiliations

Classifications: 
Person keywords: 
nutritional programming
miRNAs
metabolism
obesity
cardiometabolic disease