FIG. 1.

Early life exposure to undernutrition increases ovarian ER stress and follicular apoptosis but decreases ovarian autophagy in adult offspring. A) Maternal undernutrition during pregnancy and lactation (UNPL) resulted in an increase mRNA levels of ER stress-related genes expressed as a ratio of XBP1s to XBP1t (n = 6–7 per group). B) Maternal undernutrition during pregnancy and during pregnancy and lactation resulted in an increase in follicular cell apoptosis (measured as TUNEL-positive staining) as a proportion of total area analyzed. C) Maternal undernutrition decreased key components of the autophagy process, including microtubule-associated protein 1A/1B-light chain 3 (LC3a) in UNP ovaries. D) Beclin 1 in ovaries of UNP and UNPL offspring. E) Photographs represent ovarian sections stained for immunopositive Beclin1 protein using DAB substrate and counterstained with hematoxylin. Immunopositive Beclin1 protein is identified by brown staining. Bars = 100 μm. Negative controls show no positive staining (data not shown); n = 5 per group. F) Gene expression data are presented as means ± SEM. One-way ANOVA main effects: maternal diet P < 0.05 for all genes. Post hoc analyses (Bonferroni): *P < 0.05 for undernourished compared to control and UNL offspring. Cont, offspring of mothers fed a control diet; UNP, offspring of mothers undernourished during pregnancy alone; UNPL, offspring of mothers undernourished during pregnancy and lactation; UNL, offspring of mothers undernourished during lactation alone; n = 6–7 per group.