Maternal hyperleptinemia is associated with male offspring’s altered vascular function and structure in mice

Children of mothers with gestational diabetes have greater risk of developing hypertension but little is known about the mechanisms by which this occurs. The objective of this study was to test the hypothesis that high maternal concentrations of leptin during pregnancy, which are present in mothers with gestational diabetes and/or obesity, alter blood pressure, vascular structure and vascular function in offspring. Wildtype (WT) offspring of hyperleptinemic, normoglycemic, Lepr db/+ dams were compared to genotype matched offspring of WT-control dams. Vascular function was assessed in male offspring at 6, and at 31 weeks of age after half the offspring had been fed a high fat, high sucrose diet (HFD) for 6 weeks. Blood pressure was increased by HFD but not affected by maternal hyperleptinemia. On a standard diet, offspring of hyperleptinemic dams had outwardly remodeled mesenteric arteries and an enhanced vasodilatory response to insulin. In offspring of WT but not Leprdb/+ dams, HFD induced vessel hypertrophy and enhanced vasodilatory responses to acetylcholine, while HFD reduced insulin responsiveness in offspring of hyperleptinemic dams. Offspring of hyperleptinemic dams had stiffer arteries regardless of diet. Therefore, while maternal hyperleptinemia was largely beneficial to offspring vascular health under astandard diet, it had detrimental effects in offspring fed HFD. These results suggest that circulating maternal leptin concentrations may interact with other factors in the pre- and post-natal environments to contribute to altered vascular function in offspring of diabetic pregnancie

Adaptive Modeling of Complex Packaging Geometries Using Haar-based MRTD Algorithms

The Haar-based MRTD algorithm is applied to the design and optimization of complex 3D RF Packaging geometries.Significant numerical aspects concerning the implementation of Boundary Conditions and the thresholding of the wavelet coefficients are discussed in detail and guidelines for the efficient modeling of a practical Flip-Chip package are derived

Low-cost Low-power Small-form-factor Node for Health Monitoring Wireless Multi-Hop Personal Area Networks with Dramatically Increased Range

The medical device field is an emerging technology that has captured the interest of many engineers. The increased life expectancy created the need for reliable real time vital signal monitoring from the comfort of the home, to be transmitted to an Internet database for continuous access of medical personnel. Standard techniques fo

Efficient Co-design of Composite Smart Structures (Antennas and Mechanical Structures) Using a Novel Hybrid Optimization Technique

In the recent years, the need for improved structural efficiency and mechanical/electrical performance for the antennas, especially for aircraft applications, has led to their embedding of the functions and components in load-bearing structural surfaces for aircraft applications [1-3]. The use of a composite roof structure in militar

Design of Millimeter-Wave Metamaterials Using Deterministic Full Wave Electromagnetic Simulators and Path of Ascent Statistical Optimizer

The paper presents the first successful combined use of the Design of Experiments (DOE) and Path of Ascent (POA) approaches in the optimization study for a 40 GHz metamaterial structure implemented in Low Temperature Cofired Ceramic (LTCC) technology. The two figures of merit chosen are the resonating frequency fres and the corresponding insertion loss IL with the optimization goals of fres = 40 GHz and minimum IL. The electromagnetic performance of the structure is determined with a full wave Transmission Line Matrix (TLM) commercial simulator. The results of these simulations are incorporated into DOE and POA techniques. Statistical models are developed for the two output variables and then applied to optimize the filter. I