Prenatal exposure to diabetes or cigarette smoke and postnatal sensitivity to cigarette smoke v1

Prenatal exposure to maternal diabetes and cigarette smoke have been linked with negative respiratory consequences for offspring, including increasing risk for asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). This project aims to explore how prenatal factors influence offspring sensitivity to cigarette smoke later in life, as a surrogate for COPD risk. Downstream indicators of lung function, inflammation, and tissue for molecular analysis were collected. All the procedures for this study were done in accordance with University of Manitoba Animal Ethics (#21-011). In keeping with the 3R's of animal research, a single control group was used in this study, exposures and data were collected at the same time as the experimental groups. In this way, the control mice act as a relevant comparator for multiple prenatal exposures without necessitating separate control groups. There are four prenatal exposure groups generated from this protocol: Control (low-fat diet and room air), Maternal Diabetes (high-fat diet and room air), Maternal Smoking (low-fat diet and cigarette smoke), and Maternal Diabetes with Smoking (high-fat diet and cigarette smoke). The two aims of this project were to address 1) whether individual prenatal factors influence offspring sensitivity to cigarette smoke, 2) if prenatal exposure interact to influence influence cigarette smoke sensitivity.