Biomaterial Database

The effect of maternal exercise on somatic growth and lung development of fetal rats: morphologic and morphometric studies. 1993

A Nagai, and K Sakamoto, and K Konno

First Department of Medicine, Tokyo Women's Medical College, Japan.

Our study was aimed at elucidating the effect of strenuous maternal exercise (running at a speed of 20 m/min) on fetal somatic growth and lung development. Dams were separated into three groups: (1) exercising during the entire course of pregnancy; (2) exercising from the 16th to the 20th gestational day; and (3) controls treated in the same manner as the exercising animals, but not exercised. There were no differences in the mother's body weight (mother's body weight--total body weight of the fetuses) among the three groups. Overall growth and lung development in fetuses from mothers that exercised during the entire course of pregnancy showed markedly decreased size and weight of body and lung, smaller air spaces and thicker future alveolar walls, and fewer osmiophilic lamellated bodies in alveolar type II cells. The morphometric data of fetuses from mothers that had exercised only during late gestation were similar to those of control animals. The ratio of fetal lung volume to body weight was the same in all three groups. These findings indicate that long-term strenuous maternal exercise induces retardation of fetal lung development, possibly accompanied by a disturbance of overall growth. Maternal exercise represents another means of manipulating lung development.

UI	MeSH Term	Description	Entries
D008168	Lung	Either of the pair of organs occupying the cavity of the thorax that effect the aeration of the blood.	Lungs
D010805	Physical Conditioning, Animal	Diet modification and physical exercise to improve the ability of animals to perform physical activities.	Animal Physical Conditioning,Animal Physical Conditionings,Conditioning, Animal Physical,Conditionings, Animal Physical,Physical Conditionings, Animal
D011247	Pregnancy	The status during which female mammals carry their developing young (EMBRYOS or FETUSES) in utero before birth, beginning from FERTILIZATION to BIRTH.	Gestation,Pregnancies
D011897	Random Allocation	A process involving chance used in therapeutic trials or other research endeavor for allocating experimental subjects, human or animal, between treatment and control groups, or among treatment groups. It may also apply to experiments on inanimate objects.	Randomization,Allocation, Random
D001824	Body Constitution	The physical characteristics of the body, including the mode of performance of functions, the activity of metabolic processes, the manner and degree of reactions to stimuli, and power of resistance to the attack of pathogenic organisms.	Body Constitutions,Constitution, Body,Constitutions, Body
D005260	Female		Females
D005314	Embryonic and Fetal Development	Morphological and physiological development of EMBRYOS or FETUSES.	Embryo and Fetal Development,Prenatal Programming,Programming, Prenatal
D005317	Fetal Growth Retardation	Failure of a FETUS to attain expected GROWTH.	Growth Retardation, Intrauterine,Intrauterine Growth Retardation,Fetal Growth Restriction,Intrauterine Growth Restriction
D005325	Fetal Organ Maturity	Functional competence of specific organs or body systems of the FETUS in utero.	Fetal Maturity, Functional,Functional Fetal Maturity,Maturity, Fetal Organ,Maturity, Functional Fetal,Organ Maturity, Fetal
D000818	Animals	Unicellular or multicellular, heterotrophic organisms, that have sensation and the power of voluntary movement. Under the older five kingdom paradigm, Animalia was one of the kingdoms. Under the modern three domain model, Animalia represents one of the many groups in the domain EUKARYOTA.	Animal,Metazoa,Animalia