Focus on early life
Dr. Sandra Davidge’s interest in obesity extends back to long before children start school. The University of Alberta professor is known for her research on the fetal programming of adult chronic disease. She studies how adaptive responses to environmental stresses (such as reduced oxygen) in the womb can lead to permanent changes that negatively influence cardiovascular and metabolic health later in life. Her research team uses animal models to understand the physiologic mechanisms behind these changes and to assess cardiovascular changes as the offspring grow up.
In a recent study, Dr. Davidge, her Ph.D. student Christian Rueda-Clausen, and University of Alberta researcher Dr. Jason Dyck (also supported through Alberta Innovates – Health Solutions) investigated how fetal programming may apply to obesity. They looked at what happened when baby rats with low birth weights were raised on high-fat diets, replicating the food habits of many North American families. The team found that these rats were more prone to becoming obese when they grew older.
“We’re seeing the effect of a poor prenatal environment combined with a poor postnatal environment,” says Dr. Davidge. “We hypothesize that animals born from a complicated pregnancy are not as resilient as those born from a normal pregnancy, although they look the same. This lower resiliency comes into play when they are fed a high-fat diet. It acts as a second insult, a ‘double whammy’ to the system, which pushes the animals toward obesity.”
Dr. Davidge is interested to see whether these results translate to humans, and she is exploring a collaboration with Dr. Geoff Ball. Could children who are born small as a result of intrauterine growth restriction be at greater risk of obesity if they are fed high-fat diets? “Right now, we don’t collect that kind of information at weight management clinics,” says Dr. Davidge. “We don’t look to see what happened in the womb, but if there is a relationship, we might be able to recognize the susceptible population sooner and treat them to prevent obesity and all the problems that come with it.”