PRENATAL UNDERNUTRITION OF THE CHICKEN EMBRYO AFFECTS POST HATCH FEED INTAKE, BODY WEIGHT AND COMPOSITION.

摘要

Studies of the Dutch Hunger Winter (1944-1945) clearly show that reduced growth in utero have detrimental effects on health in later life (Roseboom et al., 2011). An assocation between low birth weight and type 2 diabetes or impaired glucose tolerancehas been found in people born around the time of the famine (Ravelli et al., 1998). This means that poor nutrition in utero may lead to permanent changes in insulin-glucose metabolism. Several mammalian models exist to study this relationship (Ozanne etal., 2001). In these models however no distinction can be made between maternal and strictly nutritional effects. Therefore a new model, the chicken, is developed. A chicken embryo develops independent from the hen in its egg. This is an excellent model for studying prenatal undernutrition in humans for several reasons: similarities in prenatal development, very accessible to manipulations and a short development time.