ABSTRACT

Cardio cerebrovascular-related diseases are the major threat to the health of people and are the leading cause of death in the world. In addition to the environmental and genetic factors，early life conditions are now also considered important contributing elements to these pathologies.The concept of‘fetal’or‘developmental’origins of adult diseases has received increased recognition over the last decade. With the improvement of the living standard and the enhancement of the awareness of physical fitness，people’s attitude towards exercise during pregnancy has a positive change. More and more attention has attracted by the security of exercise during pregnancy and the impact of exercise on the prenatal and postnatal health of the offspring. Brain renin-angiotensin system（RAS）and cholinergic system play important roles in the control of fetal cardiovascular responses，body fluid balance，and neuroendocrine regulation.This book focuses on the early functional development studied to date of cardio cerebrovascular regulation mechanisms. Combine the in vivo study on conscious animals with the in vitro study，we present the progress on the ontogeny of the local RAS and cholinergic system components in the developing brain in utero as well as their functional development before birth. Furthermore，we introduce the investigation of the functional development of the protein kinase C in the regulation of cerebral arterial contractility. In in vivo study，ovine fetuses were chronically prepared with thyrohyoid，nuchal and thoracic esophagus，and diaphragm electromyogram electrodes，as well as lateral ventricle and vascular catheters. Electrodes were also implanted on the parietal dura for determination of fetal electrocorticogram（ECoG）. After recovery，fetal cardiovascular responses，ECoG，swallowing activity and renal excretion were monitored during basal period and the experimental period following intracerebroventricular injection. Plasma arginine vasopressin and oxytocin concentrations and c-fos expression in the brain were examined，too. In in vitro vessel study，vascular tension and [Ca ²⁺ ] _i responses were simultaneously measured in segments of main branch middle cerebral arteries from near-term fetal and nonpregnant female adult sheep. The results indicate that the brain RAS and cholinergic system have developed and are functional at least at the last third of gestation. There are various developmental differences of vasoregulation mechanisms between mature and immature cerebral arteries.Given that the central cardio cerebrovascular regulation mechanisms are important not only to the prenatal but also to the postnatal health，we presumed that studies on the development of these systems in normal and abnormal patterns should shed light on“programming”mechanisms for adult cardio cerebrovascular diseases in fetal origins.