Low birth weight and reduced postnatal nutrition lead to cardiac dysfunction in piglets.

Heart disease is the leading cause of death in humans and evidence suggests early life growth restriction increases heart disease risk in adulthood. Therefore, this study sought to investigate the effects of low birth weight (LBW) and postnatal restricted nutrition (RN) on cardiac function in neonatal pigs. We hypothesized that LBW and RN would reduce cardiac function in pigs but this effect would be reversed with re-feeding. To investigate this hypothesis, pigs born weighing <1.5kg were assigned LBW and pigs born >1.5kg were assigned normal birth weight (NBW). Half the LBW and NBW pigs underwent ~25% total nutrient restriction via intermittent suckling (assigned RN) for the first 4 wk post-farrowing. The other half of piglets were allowed unrestricted suckling access to the sow (assigned NN). At 28 d of age (weaning), pigs were weaned and provided ad libitum access to a standard diet. Echocardiographic, vascular ultrasound and blood pressure (BP) measurements were performed on d 28 and again at d 56 to assess cardiovascular structure and function. A full factorial three-way ANOVA (NN vs RN, LBW vs NBW, male vs female) was performed. Key findings include reduced diastolic BP (p=0.0401) and passive ventricular filling (p=0.0062) in RN pigs at 28 d but was reversed after re-feeding. LBW piglets have reduced cardiac output index (p=0.0037) and diastolic and systolic wall thickness (p=0.0293 and p=0.0472) at 56 d. Therefore, cardiac dysfunction from RN is recovered with adequate re-feeding while LBW programs irreversible cardiac dysfunction despite proper re-feeding in neonatal pigs.