Effects Of Folate Deficiency During Pregnancy On Offspring Cardiac Ultrastructure And Expression Of Heart Development-related Genes

Objective To study the change of the ultrastructure and genic and protein expression of GATA-4, NKx2.5 at the hearts of offsprings during the development of embryos , whose mothers are deficient of folic acid. Methods (1)control group(18 rats) and study group(18 rats) were choosen from the total 36 adult female SD rats randomly copulate with the male normal rats after feeding folic acid involved and not-inolved fodder for two weeks. The serum folic acid level is verified before the RHAA fodder was fed , after the RHAA fodder was fed for 2 weeks, at the early embryonic period, at the late embryonic period .Get the hearts of the 13.5 day,17.5day embryos and the newborns. (2) To observe the ultrastuetural characters of newborn's cardiac myocardium at the three times. (3) To observe the expression of GATA-4 and NKx2.5mRNA of embryos' hearts at the three times by RT-PCR. (4) To observe the expression of GATA-4, NKx2.5 protein by Western--blotting. Results (1)The serum folic acid level is of no difference in the two groups before the RHAA fodder was fed ; The serum folic acid level of the study group is lower than that of the control study after the RHAA fodder was fed for 2 weeks, at the early embryonic period, at the late embryonic period ; in the control group ,The serum folic acid level of the...