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Dr Kathryn L Gatford

Dr Gatford graduated from the University of Melbourne as dux in the Bachelor of Agricultural Science degree (Hons I) in 1990 and with a PhD in Animal Science in 1996. Dr Gatford moved to Adelaide in 1996, originally as a postdoc with Dr Phil Owens in the Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology. In 1997 she was awarded a Peter Doherty Postdoctoral Fellowship by the NHMRC to investigate the long-term effects of restricting the growth of the placenta, and hence that of the fetus, in collaboration with Professor Julie Owens in the Department of Physiology. She moved back to Obstetrics and Gynaecology in 2000 and has continued to collaborate with Prof Owens, most recently as a University Research Fellow.

Research Interests

Dr Gatford's current research focuses on how the environment in early life programs, or pre-determines, the subsequent functional development of the individual in terms of endocrine regulation of growth and metabolic homeostasis, with a particular focus on the somatotropic and insulin axes. She is currently exploring how poor growth before birth impairs the capacity of the pancreas to adapt to increased demand for insulin.

Dr Gatford's experiments with Prof Julie Owens and Dr Miles De Blasio in the placentally-restricted sheep are the first to comprehensively describe the postnatal consequences of poor placental and fetal growth before birth in a large animal species. We have shown that the PR sheep, like the IUGR human infant, is small at birth, undergoes accelerated neonatal growth, especially of fat, and has alterations in secretion and/or sensitivity of multiple hormone axes. Small size at birth and neonatal catch-up were associated with GH deficiency or resistance in a sex-dependent manner, consistent with more limited data in humans, and identifying resetting of the somatotropic axis as a pathway to altered body composition, obesity and metabolic disease. This has implications for animal production as well as for human disease.

Importantly, the placentally-restricted sheep, like the human who grew poorly before birth, develops insulin resistance and has impaired insulin secretion from early postnatal life. We are currently exploring how the pancreas and its' insulin secreting beta-cells are affected by the prenatal environment, including the capacity of the pancreas to adapt to increased demand for insulin, and testing interventions to normalise these in infants born following restricted fetal growth.

Dr Gatfords other major research area is in developing approaches to increase fetal growth and muscle development in the pig, where large litters, pregnancies in young, growing females, and restricted maternal nutrition limit fetal growth. She has developed management strategies to increase fetal growth during critical periods of muscle development, with the long-term aim of producing piglets with increased growth potential from birth onwards.

Recent Publications

JA Owens, KL Gatford, MJ De Blasio, LJ Edwards, IC McMillen, AL Fowden 2007 Restriction of placental growth in sheep impairs insulin secretion but not sensitivity before birth. Journal of Physiology

J Lipsett, M Tamblyn, K Madigan, P Roberts, JC Cool, SIC Runciman, KL Gatford, MJ DeBlasio, JS Robinson, JA Owens 2007 Persistent structural effects of fetal growth restriction on lung development in the young adult sheep Experimental Physiology

AC Boyce, KJ Gibson, EM Wintour, I Koukoulas, KL Gatford, JA Owens, ER Lumbers 2007 The kidney is resistant to chronic hypoglycemia in late gestation fetal sheep. Canadian Journal of Physiology and Pharmacology

JA Owens, P Thavaneswaran, MJ De Blasio, IC McMillen, JS Robinson, KL Gatford 2007 Sex-specific effects of placental restriction on components of the metabolic syndrome in young adult sheep. American Journal of Physiology: Endocrinology and Metabolism

KL Gatford , PA Dalitz, ML Cock, R Harding, JA Owens 2007 Repeated acute ethanol exposure in pregnant sheep alters the maternal and fetal IGF axes. American Journal of Physiology: Endocrinology and Metabolism 292: E494 - E500

MJ De Blasio, KL Gatford, IC McMillen, JS Robinson & JA Owens 2007 Placental restriction of fetal growth increases insulin action, growth and adiposity in the young lamb. Endocrinology 148: 1350-1358

MJ De Blasio, KL Gatford, JS Robinson, JA Owens 2007 Placental restriction of fetal growth reduces size at birth and alters postnatal growth, feeding activity and adiposity in the young lamb. AmericanJournal of Physiology: Regulatory, Integrative and Comparative Physiology 292: R875-R886

MJ De Blasio, KL Gatford, JS Robinson, JA Owens 2006 Placental restriction alters circulating thyroid hormone in the young lamb postnatally. AmericanJournal of Physiology: Regulatory, Integrative and Comparative Physiology 291: R1016-R1024