Intrauterine exposure to chronic hypoxia in the rat leads to progressive diastolic function and increased aortic stiffness from early postnatal developmental stages

We sought to explore whether fetal hypoxia exposure, an insult of placental insufficiency, is associated with left ventricular dysfunction and increased aortic stiffness at early postnatal ages.Pregnant Sprague Dawley rats were exposed to hypoxic conditions (11.5% FiO2 ) from embryonic day E15-21 or normoxic conditions (controls). After delivery, left ventricular function and aortic pulse wave velocity (measure of aortic stiffness) were assessed...