Developmental Programming: Adipose Depot-Specific Transcriptional Regulation by Prenatal Testosterone Excess in a Sheep Model of PCOS

This study seeks to undertake an assessment of the effects of prenatal exposure of female sheep to excess testosterone, the estrogen precursor, in four different adipose depots. The depots investigated are subcutaneous adipose tissue (SAT) - a fat beneath the skin storing >80% of total body fat in the human body, visceral adipose tissue (VAT) - an intra-abdominal fat primarily associated with digestive system organs, and smaller depots such as epicardial adipose tissue (ECAT) and perirenal adipose tissue (PRAT) that serve specialized functions associated with the organs/tissues in their proximity. The goals are to 1) determine gene expression and gene network profiles in the depots; 2) assess prenatal T-treatment induced disruptions in adipose depot-specific gene expression and gene networks; and 3) identify common and divergent gene and gene pathways underlying depot-specific disruption in prenatal T-treated female sheep. 8 sheep, 4 per treatment group. From each sheep, 4 adipose depot samples. 32 samples total.