Maternal diabetes programs hypertension and kidney injury in offspring

We investigated whether maternal diabetes programs the offspring to develop hypertension and kidney injury in adulthood and examined potential underlying mechanisms. In a murine model we studied the offspring of three groups of dams (non-diabetic, diabetic, and diabetic treated with insulin). Mean systolic blood pressure in the offspring was monitored from 8 to 20 weeks. Body and kidney weights in the offspring of diabetic mothers were significantly lower than in offspring of non-diabetic mothers. Offspring of diabetic mothers developed hypertension, microalbuminuria, and glucose intolerance. Increased accumulation of extracellular matrix proteins in the glomeruli and marked upregulation of angiotensinogen, angiotensin II type 1 receptor, angiotensin-converting enzyme, transforming growth factor beta-1 (TGF-beta1), and plasminogen activator inhibitor-1 (PAI-1) gene expression were evident in the renal cortex of hypertensive offspring of diabetic mothers. By contrast, angiotensin-converting enzyme-2 (ACE2) gene expression was lower in the hypertensive offspring of diabetic mothers than in that of non-diabetic mothers. These changes were prevented in the offspring of insulin-treated diabetic mothers. These data indicate that maternal diabetes induces perinatal programming of hypertension, renal injury, and glucose intolerance in the offspring and suggest a central role for the activation of the intrarenal renin-angiotensin system and TGF-beta1 gene expression in this process.