Maternal Obesity is Associated with Ovarian Inflammation and Up-regulation of Early Growth Response Factor (Egr)-1

Maternal obesity during the pre-implantation period leads to a pro-inflammatory milieu in the ovaries. We conducted a global transcriptomic profiling in ovaries from TEN fed rats during the pre-implantation period. Microarray analysis revealed that obesity lead to increased expression of genes related to inflammation, decreased glucose transporters, and dysregulation of ovarian function-related genes in the ovaries. Our results suggest maternal obesity led to an up-regulation of inflammatory genes and Egr-1 protien expression in peri-implantation ovarian tissue, and a concurrent down-regulation of glucose transporters mRNA and AKT and PI3K protein levels.

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Ruebel M, Shankar K, Gaddy D, Lindsey F, Badger T, Andres A