La coneja como modelo animal para el estudio del crecimiento intrauterino retardado inducido por restricción alimentaria gestacional

Abstract

Fetal growth depends on an adequate maternal nutritional balance and a correct placental development. Imbalanced diets during gestation may predispose the mother and her offspring to suffering from pregnancy complications and abnormal fetal development, with long-term consequences for their health. Intrauterine Growth Restriction (IUGR), defined as the failure of a fetus to reach its genetic potential size, can be associated to multiple factors, such as placental insufficiency or maternal pathological diseases (e.g. undernutrition). In IUGR, the impairment in placental function reduces the oxygen and nutrient supply to the fetus, resulting in fetuses with low body weight at birth and possible disproportionate body growth. Such alteration may be associated with changes in the growth pattern of certain organs, such as the brain or the liver. However, the severity of the effects of undernutrition during gestation will depend on the time of exposure, the degree or intensity of the restriction and the type of food deprivation. Despite the multiple differences in placentation and fetal development among eutherian mammals, experimental animals such as rodents or sheep have been useful for the study of IUGR and placental insufficiency. However, in the last years, there is a tendency to complete the results obtained from the aforementioned animal models with other eutherian mammals. In this sense, the employment of animals with a double functionality, biomedical modeling and livestock production, could reduce overlapping research and be a suitable alternative to the frequent employment of rodents. In this sense, the rabbit, which shares some physiological characteristics with the human (hemochorial placentation and accelerated fetal brain development) could be a suitable alternative ...