The fetus typically grows and matures in a low-lipid intrauterine environment. However, circulating fetal lipid levels may rise with maternal dyslipidemia or infection, and are always higher after birth no matter whether term or preterm. How immature tissues respond to developmentally early lipid exposure is poorly understood.
To understand better how fetal adipose tissue responds to increased circulating lipid levels in midgestation, we infused Intralipid into fetal sheep from 85 to 97 days of gestation (term = 147 days).
Graduate student Xinrui Li describes in this manuscript how fetal omental (white) and sternal (brown) adipose tissue responded to a week of Intralipid exposure in utero. She found that high circulating lipids promoted adipocyte differentiation and increased lipid accumulation. This may be protective in fetuses, for instance as a way to prevent damage to other organ systems by serving a way to lower circulating lipid levels.
These findings help us understand how at the mid-gestational developmental stage lipid excess affects adipose tissue, and important concern for how we care for compromised pregnancies and preterm infants.
Find this paper on Pubmed and The FASEB Journal.