Regular aerobic exercise improves endothelium-dependent vasodilation in pregnancy. This intervention may be an early and effective alternative to strengthen the prevention of disorders associated to endothelial dysfunction.

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Epidemiological studies have led scientists to postulate the developmental origins of health and disease hypothesis for noncommunicable diseases such as diabetes, cardiovascular diseases, hypertension, and obesity. However, the cellular and molecular mechanisms involved in the development of these diseases are not well understood. In various animal models, it has been observed that oxidative stress during pregnancy is associated with the early development of endothelial dysfunction in offspring. This phenomenon suggests that endothelial dysfunction may initiate in the uterus and could lead to increased risk of cardiovascular disease later in life. Currently, it is known that many of the fetal adaptive responses to environmental factors are mediated by epigenetic changes in the genome, especially by the degree of methylation in cytosines in the promoter regions of genes. These findings suggest that the establishment of a particular epigenetic pattern in the genome may be generated by oxidative stress.

The study of cyanobacteria isolated from hypersaline environments is of interest because of their metabolic and ecophysiologic versatility in adapting to extreme conditions of salinity, temperature, irradiance and nutrient availability. The effect of salinity at 0‰, 35‰, 70‰ and 100‰ on the growth, dry weight, and pigment, protein, carbohydrate and lipid production of the cyanobacterium Synechococcus sp. was determined. Bioassays were kept in ALGAL medium equivalent to 8 mM NaNO3, constant aeration, 12:12 h photoperiod, 28 ± 2ºC and 156 µmol quanta m–2 s–1 of irradiance. The cyanobacterium was able to grow under all salinities tested. Cell density was optimized at 35‰, with 607.64 ± 14.35 cells mL–1. The highest values of dry weight (3.87 ± 0.03 ng cell–1), chlorophyll a (41.86 ± 0.39 fg cell–1), ß-carotene (9.03 ± 0.15 fg cell–1), zeaxanthin (9.74 ± 0.24 fg cell–1), proteins (1.95 ± 0.05 pg cell–1) and carbohydrates (1.80 ± 0.05 pg cell–1) were obtained at 100‰; however, the highest lipid content (0.45 ± 0.04 pg cell–1) was reached at 0‰. This Synechococcus strain shows halotolerance and the capacity to modulate the production of enriched biomass with pigments, proteins, carbohydrates and lipids in terms of salinity.