Maternal Undernutrition during Pregnancy Alters Amino Acid Metabolism and Gene Expression Associated with Energy Metabolism and Angiogenesis in Fetal Calf Muscle

Figures

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  Figure 1. HCA using the top 50 statistically different metabolites between LN (green) and HN (red) fetuses. The row displays the metabolite and the column represents the sample. Metabolites with relatively low contents are displayed in blue, while metabolites with relatively high contents are displayed in brown. The brightness of each color corresponds to the magnitude of the difference when compared with the average value. UDP-GlcNAc: uridine diphosphate N-acetylglucosamine/uridine diphosphate N-acetylgalactosamine, 8-OHdG: 8-hydroxy-2′-deoxyguanosine, PEP: phosphoenolpyruvic acid, Frc 1,6-diP: fructose 1,6-diphosphate, DHAP: dihydroxyacetone phosphate.

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  Figure 2. qPCR results of highly down- and upregulated fetal skeletal muscle genes in microarray analysis. The ratios of the normalized gene expression of the LN (green) to HN (red) fetuses are shown as columns. RPL7 was used as the internal control. Error bars indicate SEM. * and + indicate differences between the LN and HN fetuses at p < 0.05 and p < 0.10, respectively. PDK4: pyruvate dehydrogenase kinase 4, NOS2: nitric oxide synthase 2, CPT1B: carnitine palmitoyltransferase 1B, MTHFD2: methylenetetrahydrofolate dehydrogenase (NADP+ dependent) 2, methenyltetrahydrofolate cyclohydrolase, RICTOR: RPTOR independent companion of MTOR complex 2, FOXP1: forkhead box P1, PPARA: peroxisome proliferator activated receptor alpha, RETN: resistin, SLC7A5: solute carrier family 7 member 5, GPNMB: glycoprotein nmb, ALDH1L2: aldehyde dehydrogenase 1 family member L2.

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  Figure 3. Expression of fetal skeletal muscle genes associated with significant metabolisms/pathways extracted in GO and KEGG analyses. The ratios of the normalized gene expression of the LN (green) to HN (red) fetuses are shown as columns. RPL7 was used as the internal control. Error bars indicate SEM. * and + indicate differences between the LN and HN fetuses at p < 0.05 and p < 0.10, respectively.

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  Figure 4. Hypothetic scheme of influences of maternal nutrient restriction on the fetal skeletal muscle molecular pathways and metabolisms. Genes and metabolites are shown in blue and green, respectively. Increase and decrease are indicated in small black and red arrows, respectively. Underlined metabolisms/pathways are significantly extracted in GO/KEGG pathway analysis. Grayed events and metabolites were not determined in this study, but some of these were confirmed in previous studies.