Intrauterine growth restriction (IUGR) is a fetal condition that affects up to 10% of all pregnancies and is associated with cardiovascular structural and functional remodelling that persists postnatally. Some studies have reported an increase in myocardial coronary blood flow in severe IUGR fetuses which has been directly associated to the dilatation of the coronary arteries. However, a direct measurement of the coronaries’ lumen diameter in IUGR has not been reported before. The aim of this paper is to perform, for the first time, a quantitative analysis of the effects of IUGR in cardiac geometry and coronary vessel size in a well-known rabbit model of IUGR using synchrotron-based X-ray Phase Contrast Tomography Imaging (X-PCI). Eight rabbit fetal hearts were imaged non-destructively with X-PCI. 3D reconstructions of the coronary arterial tree were obtained after semi-automatic image segmentation. Different morphometric features including vessel lumen diameter of the three main coronaries were automatically quantified. IUGR fetuses had more globular hearts and dilated coronary arteries as compared to controls. We have quantitatively shown that IUGR leads to structural coronary vascular tree remodelling and enlargement as an adaptation mechanism in response to an adverse environment of restricted oxygen and nutrients and increased perfusion pressure.

This study was partially supported by the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness (grant TIN2014-52923-R to BB; Maria de Maeztu Units of Excellence Programme - MDM-2015-0502); la Caixa Foundation (Spain); Cerebra Foundation for the Brain Injured Child (Carmarthen, Wales, UK); the Secretaria d’Universitats i Recerca del Departament d’Economia i Coneixement de la Generalitat de Catalunya (2014 SGR grant nº 928, 2016FI_B01184); Instituto de Salud Carlos III (PI14/00226 to FC, PI15/00130 to EG and INT16/00168 to FC) as part of the Plan Nacional de I+D+I and co-funded by ISCIII-Subdirección General de Evaluación; the Fondo Europeo de Desarrollo Regional (FEDER) “Otra manera de hacer Europa” (Spain).