Influence of perinatal environment on health and disease:an inventory in rats

Nowadays, we live in a 24/7-economy, with high psychological demands and plenty of (high caloric) food. In this society, maternal undernutrition may be less relevant because food is so abundant. Other factors, like stress, maternal obesity and high fat diet, may be more relevant for our current society and can also influence offspring development. The aim of this thesis is to make an inventory of the influence of prenatal risk factors that are relevant to the modern society on health and disease in a rat model. Emphasis is put on metabolic functions in the offspring at adulthood, but the experiments encompass also activity of the HPA axis and stress-related learning