Essentially, isoflavones in maternal diets of rats programs the heart of their offspring so that they are protected against cardiac failure later during adulthood.
Study results show that when isoflavones are absent from the diet of mothers during pregnancy and lactation, the hearts of their offspring have larger ventricular cavities, longer cardiac cells, and progress more rapidly towards heart failure than in counterpart rats whose mother had received a diet containing isoflavones during the same perinatal period. Isoflavones have no such cardiac effects when incorporated into the diet of rats after puberty.
These results illustrate the importance of the composition of maternal diet during the time immediately preceding and following birth in programming the performance of the heart later during adulthood. Full results of the study are published in the on-line edition of the American Journal of Physiology.
Christian F. Deschepper, the study lead investigator is available for interview.
For more information or a copy of the document please contact:
Janet Weichel
CIHR Communications
613-941-4563
