School of Animal Biology, The University of Western Australia, 35 Stirling Highway, Crawley, Western Australia 6009, Australia.
Animal. 2012 Nov;6(11):1803-10. doi: 10.1017/S1751731112000584.
Maternal nutrition during pregnancy can affect kidney development in the foetus, which may lead to adverse consequences in the mature kidney. It was expected that high-salt intake by pregnant ewes would lead to a reduction in foetal glomerular number but that the ovine kidney would adapt to maintain homoeostasis, in part by increasing the size of each glomerulus. Merino ewes that were fed either a control (1.5% NaCl) or high-salt (10.5% NaCl) diet during pregnancy, as well as their 5-month-old offspring, were subjected to a dietary salt challenge, and glomerular number and size and sodium excretion were measured. The high-salt offspring had 20% fewer glomeruli compared with the control offspring (P < 0.001), but they also had larger glomerular radii compared with the control offspring (P < 0.001). Consequently, the cross-sectional area of glomeruli was 18% larger in the high-salt offspring than in the control offspring (P < 0.05). There was no difference in the daily urinary sodium excretion between the two offspring groups (P > 0.05), although the high-salt offspring produced urine with a higher concentration of sodium. Our results demonstrated that maternal high-salt intake during pregnancy affected foetal nephrogenesis, altering glomerular number at birth. However, the ability to concentrate and excrete salt was not compromised, which indicates that the kidney was able to adapt to the reduction in the number of glomeruli.
孕妇在怀孕期间的营养状况会影响胎儿肾脏的发育，这可能会导致成熟肾脏出现不良后果。人们曾预计，怀孕母羊高盐饮食会导致胎儿肾小球数量减少，但羊肾会通过增加每个肾小球的大小来适应维持体内平衡。在怀孕期间，美利奴母羊分别喂食对照（1.5%NaCl）或高盐（10.5%NaCl）饮食，以及它们 5 月龄的后代，进行盐饮食挑战，测量肾小球数量和大小以及钠排泄量。与对照组后代相比，高盐组后代的肾小球数量减少了 20%（P<0.001），但肾小球半径也大于对照组后代（P<0.001）。因此，高盐组后代的肾小球横截面积比对照组后代大 18%（P<0.05）。两组后代的日尿钠排泄量没有差异（P>0.05），尽管高盐组后代的尿液中钠浓度更高。我们的研究结果表明，孕妇在怀孕期间高盐摄入会影响胎儿肾发生，改变出生时的肾小球数量。然而，浓缩和排泄盐的能力没有受到影响，这表明肾脏能够适应肾小球数量的减少。
