The goals of SC INBRE are to build biomedical research infrastructure, strengthen undergraduate research training in South Carolina, and to promote access to health research careers for all South Carolina students. To accomplish these goals, SC INBRE’s network includes comprehensive research universities and predominately undergraduate institutions (PUIs) and provides support for faculty research projects. The projects submitted in this proposal reflect the scientific scope of SC INBRE. USC Project: Cardiac extracellular matrix remodeling failure in postpartum maternal health Postpartum cardiomyopathy is a condition in women in which the mother’s enlarged pregnant heart fails to return to a non-pregnant state within the postpartum period. The disease can progress to heart failure. Our long term goals of this research are to understand why postpartum cardiomyopathy occurs, identify biomarkers to screen women at risk, and develop a preventative treatment. In this proposal we will study a mouse model of postpartum cardiomyopathy, mice overexpressing membrane type 1 matrix metalloproteinase (MT1-MMP OE) in the heart, to better understand the human condition. Our specific aim is to compare the changes in heart function, structure, matrix molecules, and mortality in wildtype and cardiac-restricted MT1-MMP-over expression mice during pregnancy and the postpartum period. We will compare the mortality of wildtype mice and MT1-MMP OE mice during first pregnancies and immediate second pregnancies during the first six weeks postpartum. We will evaluate changes in left ventricular function, cardiac structure and extracellular cellular matrix proteins and their activities and mRNA levels during pregnancy and postpartum in wildtype and MT1-MMP OE mice. Furman Project: Sex differences in hypothalamic neuroinflammation due to maternal high fat diet Maternal high fat diet consumption has long-term consequences on offspring, including increased risk for obesity and diabetes. Rodent studies demonstrate activation of the maternal immune system and increased inflammation in offspring due to maternal consumption of a high fat diet prior to and during pregnancy as well as during lactation. A neuroinflammatory response in the hypothalamus can impair energy balance and induce insulin resistance, further perpetuating obesity and diabetes in future generations. Since male mice exhibit greater weight gain and hypothalamic microglial activation compared to female mice following direct consumption of a high fat diet, we expect sex differences in offspring born to dams fed a high fat diet. We hypothesize that maternal high fat diet will lead to increased pro-inflammatory markers and microgliosis in the hypothalamus of male compared to female offspring from maternal high fat diet consumption. We will test this hypothesis via analysis of neuroinflammation in the hypothalamus using targeted morphological assessments of inflammatory cell components/reactivity and unbiased transcrip...