Abstract: Objective To investigate the effects of chronic intrauterine hypoxia on insulin resistance, hypertension, and the correlation between them in adult offspring rats. Methods A total of 25 pregnant Sprague Dawley（SD） rats were randomly divided into 5 groups: 4 prenatal chronic hypoxia groups（H groups） and a control group（C group）. Control group was put into anoxic chamber with 21% oxygen concentration. H groups were divided into whole（1-21 day）, early（1-7 day）, middle（8-14 day） and late（15-21 day） prenatal hypoxia groups（H1, H2, H3, H4 group） with rats being put into hypoxia box（10%±1% O₂） 3 hours per day. Five male and 5 female offspring in each group were studied when the descendant rats were 1 day-, 3 month-and 6-month-old. Fasting blood glucose（FBG） was measured by blood glucose meter, fasting serum insulin（FINS） was detected by radioimmunoassay, and insulin resistance index was calculated by homeostasis model insulin resistance index（HOMA-IR）. Renal mass index was also measured. The expression of insulin receptor（InR） protein, the expression of insulin receptor substrate（IRS）-1 and IRS-2 mRNA and the expression of InR, IRS-1 and IRS-2 protein in kidney were detected by immunohistochemistry, fluorescent quantitative polymerase chain reaction（PCR） and Western blot, respectively. Results The blood pressure index of offspring rats in H groups were lower than that in C group at 3 months old, and the difference was more significant at 6 months old（P＜0.05）. The level of FBG female（5.78±0.21）,（5.69±0.29） vs（4.73±0.14） mmol/L, male（5.84±0.19）,（5.76±0.24） vs（4.79±0.23）mmol/L, HOMA-IR female（3.35±0.34）,（3.23±0.26） vs（2.71±0.23）, male（3.55±0.25）,（3.18±0.33） vs（2.66±0.39） in the whole pregnancy hypoxia and the early pregnancy hypoxia group were statistically higher than those in C group（P＜0.05） at 6 months old. FBG and HOMA-IR were positively correlated with blood pressure（P＜0.05）. The renal mass index in each hypoxia group was lower than that in C group at 3 months old, and the difference was more significant at 6 months old（P＜0.05）. The expressions of InR, IRS-1 and IRS-2 mRNA and protein in the kidneys in hypoxia groups were significantly decreased at 6 month old in whole pregnancy and early hypoxia groups when compared with the C group（P＜0.05）. Conclusions Chronic intrauterine hypoxia may cause insulin resistance and hypertension in adult offspring rats through poor intrauterine growth environment and there is a correlation between insulin resistance and hypertension.