Name

Ilhami Gulcin

Email

gulcin@ksu.edu.sa

Address

 Zoology Dept., College of Science, Building (5)

Office: AB 112

Telephone: 4675787

Project Title

Effeciency of human placental in Southern Saudi Arabia

Project Summary

There is now a body of evidence that common chronic diseases, including coronary heart disease, diabetes, hypertension, stroke, osteoporosis and certain cancers originate through malnutrition in the womb.  This opens up the possibility that improving the nutrition of girls and young women might prevent the rising epidemics of chronic disease in Saudi Arabia. A baby’s nutrition depends not only on its mother’s nutritional status and metabolism but on the placenta’s ability to transport nutrients to it. Recently, the gross morphology of the placenta at birth has been shown to predict cardiovascular disease and cancer in later life.  This suggests that placental morphology reflects important aspects of placental function that are linked to chronic disease. The function of the placenta during gestation is reflected in its gene expression at birth. We have documented the body size and diets of 300 pregnant women attending the King Khalid Hospital. After delivery the placentas are stored at – 800 C. We propose to relate placental morphology to the expression of selected groups of genes taking into account maternal nutritional status.