A new study, published in the Journal of the American Heart Association, suggests that what happens in the womb could determine whether the offspring will develop obesity or other metabolic diseases later in life.
Three groups of UAB researchers analyzed the mechanisms of the transgenerational impact of the mother’s obesity and the effects on offspring.
The first group, led by Timothy Garvey, MD, Kirk Habegger, PhD, and fellow Rogerio Sertie, PhD, looked at how a mother’s diet during pregnancy affected her offspring’s body composition and metabolism. They found that a protein-restricted diet during gestation produced smaller offspring with more muscle and less fat. On the other hand, when mothers had a high-fat diet during pregnancy, their offspring had a greater risk of obesity and consumed more food, despite having high levels of hormones that regulate hunger and metabolism.
They also found that differences in DNA methylation at specific gene sites are associated with obesity and metabolic diseases in the offspring. This provide insights into how early-life events can impact health later in life and could lead to new ways to prevent these conditions.
The second study group, led by Ashley Battarbee, MD and Lorie Harper, MD, aims to understand how the in-utero environment affects the health of newborns and infants up to three months.
They enrolled pregnant women who were separated into groups based on their weight status and whether they had gestational diabetes, and tested to see whether the differences in the in-utero environment led to differences in the health of their babies.
The researchers hypothesized that the same epigenetic modifications associated with cardiometabolic disease traits in older children would also be present at the time of birth. They hope to identify modifiable risk factors that can prevent lifelong obesity and cardiometabolic disease in infants with in-utero exposure to maternal obesity and/or gestational diabetes. The study was completed in December 2021, and analyses are currently underway.
The third study group, led by Paula Chandler Laney, PhD, Bertha Hidalgo, PhD, and fellow Samantha Martin, PhD, enrolled mother-child pairs to investigate the effects of maternal obesity with and without gestational diabetes on obesity and cardiometabolic traits in both mothers and children.
The researchers found that mothers with a history of obesity during pregnancy had a poorer cardiometabolic phenotype compared to mothers who had a normal body mass index during pregnancy. However, the severity of this phenotype varied depending on whether the mother also had gestational diabetes. Children’s cardiometabolic traits were modestly correlated with those of their mothers.
The researchers suggest that cardiometabolic health following in-utero exposure to maternal obesity or gestational diabetes may become more pronounced once children reach adolescence. The study’s findings could help identify modifiable risk factors for lifelong obesity in infants exposed to maternal insulin resistance and obesity, and may pave the way for new interventions.
