# Maternal Exercise Preserves Cardiac Function in Adult Offspring

> **NIH NIH F31** · OHIO STATE UNIVERSITY · 2021 · $15,018

## Abstract

Project summary:
Cardiovascular disease (CVD) is the leading cause of death in the United States. CVD develops as a result of
genetic or lifestyle components, and it has now been established that CVD can also originate as a consequence
of insults to the maternal environment during critical windows of prenatal development. In fact, studies have
shown that maternal obesity or a high fat diet during pregnancy is associated with elevated risk for the
development of cardiovascular diseases (such as hypertrophy, reduced contractile function and hypertension)
in adult offspring. Regular exercise is an important therapeutic treatment used in patients to prevent the onset of
cardiovascular and metabolic diseases. Studies in our lab and others have shown that in a rodent model,
maternal exercise improves the metabolic health of adult offspring from chow-fed dams and negates the
detrimental effects of maternal high-fat diet on offspring metabolic health. However, the effects of maternal
exercise on the cardiac health of adult offspring have not been well investigated. Our exciting preliminary data
demonstrate that adult offspring from exercised dams have preserved cardiac function compared to offspring
from sedentary mothers; while offspring from HFD-fed sedentary dams have impaired cardiac function.
Importantly, maternal exercise negates the detrimental effects of a maternal high-fat diet on adult offspring
cardiac function. The proposed study will determine the ability of maternal exercise to prevent the detrimental
effects of a maternal HFD, and be the first to identify the efficacy of maternal exercise to preserve cardiac
function in male and female offspring from chow-fed dams. Importantly, these studies will identify the
mechanism(s) through which maternal exercise exerts beneficial effects on offspring cardiac health. We will do
this using two specific aims: Aim 1 will determine the effects of maternal exercise on offspring cardiomyocyte
contractile function, calcium handling, and respiration, and Aim 2 will determine the genetic and/or epigenetic
mechanism(s) behind these effects. By determining the mechanism behind maternal exercise induced
protections on offspring cardiac health, this proposal will potentially provide identify novel therapeutic targets to
protect against the development of cardiac disease.

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10235509
- **Project number:** 1F31HL152648-01A1
- **Recipient organization:** OHIO STATE UNIVERSITY
- **Principal Investigator:** Kelsey Pinckard
- **Activity code:** F31 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2021
- **Award amount:** $15,018
- **Award type:** 1
- **Project period:** 2021-07-01 → 2021-12-31

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10235509

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10235509, Maternal Exercise Preserves Cardiac Function in Adult Offspring (1F31HL152648-01A1). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-24 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10235509. Licensed CC0.

---

*[NIH grants dataset](/datasets/nih-grants) · CC0 1.0*