Maternal micronutrient deficiency leads to alteration in the kidney proteome in rat pups

Maternal nutritional deficiency significantly perturbs the offspring's physiology predisposing them to metabolic diseases during adulthood. Vitamin B-12 and folate are two such micronutrients, whose deficiency leads to elevated homocysteine levels. We earlier generated B-12 and/or folate deficient rat models and using high-throughput proteomic approach, showed that maternal vitamin B-12 deficiency modulates carbohydrate and lipid metabolism in the liver of pups through regulation of PPAR signaling pathway. In this study, using similar approach, we identified 26 differentially expressed proteins in the kidney of pups born to mothers fed with vitamin B-12 deficient diet while only four proteins were identified in the folate deficient group. Importantly, proteins like calreticulin, cofilin 1 and nucleoside diphosphate kinase B that are involved in the functioning of the kidney were upregulated in B-12 deficient group. Our results hint towards a larger effect of vitamin B-12 deficiency compared to that of folate presumably due to greater elevation of homocysteine in vitamin B-12 deficient group. In view of widespread vitamin B-12 and folate deficiency and its association with several diseases like anemia, cardiovascular and renal diseases, our results may have large implications for kidney diseases in populations deficient in vitamin B-12 especially in vegetarians and the elderly people. This article is part of a Special Issue entitled: Proteomics in India. (C) 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.