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University of Wyoming

Background of the Center

    An exciting joint venture was initiated in the Fall of 2002 by the University of Wyoming and the University of Texas Health Sciences Center that will have implications for improving the profitability of livestock production, and in improving human health.  It was the establishment of The Center for the Study of Fetal Programming at the University of Wyoming.  This Center will investigate the specific effects of maternal stresses (i.e., nutritional, environmental and hormonal) on the health and well being of offspring. 

Snowy Range Mountains
3-D Ultrasound

    Dr. David Barker, at Southampton University in England, championed the concept of prenatal programming of the fetus.  He studied birth records of babies born in the United Kingdom and related different maternal stresses to the weight and physical characteristics of their babies at birth to the subsequent health status of these offspring in later life.  Maternal under-nutrition during the first half of gestation, followed by adequate nutrition to term, resulted in babies of normal birth weight, which were proportionally longer and thinner than normal.  This early fetal under-nutrition resulted in an increased incidence of health problems experienced by these individuals as adults.

    An exciting joint venture was initiated in the Fall of 2002 by the University of Wyoming and the University of Texas Health Sciences Center that will have implications for improving the profitability of livestock production, and in improving human health.  It was the establishment of The Center for the Study of Fetal Programming at the University of Wyoming.  This Center will investigate the specific effects of maternal stresses (i.e., nutritional, environmental and hormonal) on the health and well being of offspring. 

Pregnant Woman