{"id":340133,"date":"2026-06-17T18:22:13","date_gmt":"2026-06-17T18:22:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/340133\/"},"modified":"2026-06-17T18:22:13","modified_gmt":"2026-06-17T18:22:13","slug":"usda-funds-texas-tech-vet-school-study-on-prebiotics-and-maternal-health","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/340133\/","title":{"rendered":"USDA Funds Texas Tech Vet School Study on Prebiotics and Maternal Health"},"content":{"rendered":"

LUBBOCK, Texas \u2014 Through a recently awarded $630,435 grant from the U.S. Department of Agriculture\u2019s National Institute of Food and Agriculture (USDA NIFA), Prasanth Chelikani<\/a>, professor of physiology at\u00a0Texas\u00a0Tech University\u2019s<\/a>\u00a0School of Veterinary Medicine<\/a>, is addressing a growing public health challenge using a One Health approach.<\/p>\n

Research shows that obesity, diabetes and hypertension during pregnancy increase medical complications for mothers and are linked to a heightened risk of metabolic diseases in their children later in life. This study will examine whether specific prebiotic fibers \u2013 a type of dietary fiber that supports beneficial gut bacteria \u2013 can help protect pregnant mothers and their offspring from obesity, high blood pressure and related metabolic issues.<\/p>\n

\u201cMajority of clinical drug trials exclude pregnant women, and despite the recent surge in anti-obesity medications for weight control, they are not recommended for pregnant women due to lack of safety data,\u201d Chelikani said. \u201cAs an alternative and safer strategy, in this project, we will assess whether the consumption of diets enriched in prebiotic fibers will improve maternal health and protect the offspring against obesity and metabolic diseases later in life.\u201d<\/p>\n

Because a transgenerational human study involves substantial time, cost and ethical considerations, the Chelikani lab will use preclinical rodent models that mirror key features of human disease, including obesity, severe hypertension and stroke risk. This approach provides a practical and rigorous pathway to evaluate mechanisms by which dietary prebiotic fibers alter gut microbiota to improve maternal and offspring metabolic health and identify potential intervention windows.<\/p>\n

\u201cOver two decades, Dr. Chelikani has addressed complex questions relating to obesity, diabetes, and nutrition and advanced biomedical research via high-quality rodent models that are essential for understanding and studying diseases and conditions,\u201d said\u00a0Annelise Nguyen<\/a>, associate dean of research and graduate programs at the School of Veterinary Medicine. \u201cHis research activities have played a pivotal part of our graduate program in\u00a0One Health Sciences<\/a>, training the next generation of scientists to continue addressing One Health challenges.\u201d<\/p>\n

School of Veterinary Medicine Dean Guy Loneragan believes Chelikani\u2019s work is of paramount importance, as it aims to inform diet-based or microbiome-guided strategies that align with USDA\u2019s Agriculture and Food Research Initiative priorities in food and human health.<\/p>\n

\u201cFindings of his critical research will help inform approaches to improve health outcomes for women and their kiddos,\u201d Loneragan said. \u201cIn addition to being a fantastic scholar, Dr. Chelikani is a wonderful person and a hugely valued part of our School. I am excited to watch his research unfold.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2014 Texas Tech University<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"LUBBOCK, Texas \u2014 Through a recently awarded $630,435 grant from the U.S. Department of Agriculture\u2019s National Institute of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":340134,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[121319,168,170,169,121320,858,5876],"class_list":["post-340133","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-lubbock","tag-funding-and-grants","tag-lubbock","tag-lubbock-headlines","tag-lubbock-news","tag-nutrition-and-health","tag-research","tag-usda"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/340133","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=340133"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/340133\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/340134"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=340133"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=340133"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=340133"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}