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Low birth weight is associated with adult-onset diseases including hypertension and renal disease; altered renal development after intrauterine growth restriction (IUGR) may underlie such prenatal programming. Our aim was to investigate nephron endowment and renal filtration surface area in fetal sheep in which IUGR resulted from late gestational umbilico-placental embolization (UPE) or natural twinning. UPE was performed between 120 and 140 d of gestation (term∼ 147 d). At autopsy (140 d), body weights of UPE and twin fetuses were, respectively, 34% and 28% lower than controls. Kidneys were sampled using a smooth fractionator approach and glomerular number was estimated using a physical disector/fractionator technique. Glomerular capillary length and filtration surface area were estimated using unbiased stereological techniques. Although relative kidney weights (grams per kilogram body weight …