The metabolic state of the woman during pregnancy can affect the health of her baby throughout her life, since a new investigation carried out by Spanish scientists has revealed that if the pregnant woman presents obesity or diabetes, her child develops epigenetic alterations that predispose her to suffering from diseases such as diabetes, obesity or cardiovascular disorders that occur as a result of these pathologies, and not only are they at greater risk of suffering from these health problems during childhood and adolescence, but this risk is maintained throughout adult life.
The study was carried out by Spanish researchers and pediatricians from the General Hospital of Valencia participated in it, which belongs to the CIBER area of ​​Physiopathology of Obesity and Nutrition of the Center for Network Biomedical Research (CIBEROBN), the University of Valencia and the INCLIVA Health Research Institute of Valencia, in collaboration with the Cancer Epigenetics and Nanomedicine Group (CINN-CSIC), the University of Oviedo and the Rare Diseases area of ​​the CIBER (CIBERER).
The study describes epigenetic alterations in the offspring, beyond birth, which are associated with the metabolic condition of the mother during pregnancy. These chemical changes influence the regulation of genes, and their alteration is related to the development of numerous diseases that constitute a major public health problem, such as obesity. Their results have been published in Cardiovascular Diabetology.
“Maternal obesity and gestational diabetes can condition the health of the offspring, from childhood to adulthood, increasing the risk of comorbidities that reduce quality and life expectancy”
“Pregnancy is a fundamental period in the life of human beings that actively affects the development of offspring, and their predisposition to the future appearance of cardiometabolic diseases. Disorders such as maternal obesity and gestational diabetes can affect the health of the offspring, from childhood to adulthood, increasing the risk of comorbidities that reduce quality and life expectancy”, explained Empar Lurbe, CIBEROBN Principal Investigator at the INCLIVA Research Group for the Prevention of Cardiovascular Risk in Children and Adolescents.
Mario Fraga, a CIBERER researcher and another of the coordinators of the study at the University of Oviedo, affirms that “maternal obesity during pregnancy can affect 30% of pregnant women, with the resulting repercussions for health systems and their policies of public health. However, beyond the epidemiological evidence, the molecular causes responsible for these negative effects on the health of the offspring are unknown.
Molecular alterations in the baby linked to the state of the mother
The researchers looked at a group of children of both sexes born to women who had developed obesity, or obesity with gestational diabetes, during their pregnancy. The study has included longitudinal follow-up, which has been carried out throughout the first year of life in the Pediatric Service of the General Hospital of Valencia, and which has made it possible to identify the molecular traces that make mothers capable of influencing the genome of their offspring continuously over time.
These scientists have explained that this study is a new example of how the environment interacts with our genes. In this case, the results indicate that the state of health and the metabolic condition of the pregnant woman can condition the state of health of the children in a persistent manner, which may have important implications for public health issues. Their results are the first evidence that the intrauterine environment, and specifically obesity and gestational diabetes, are capable of persistently reprogramming the methylation patterns of offspring, beyond birth.
The alterations affect genes that are part of regulatory pathways for fatty acid metabolism, cardiovascular signaling or mitochondrial bioenergetics, key processes in obesity and diabetes mellitus. Being able to detect these alterations in peripheral blood reinforces the idea that maternal metabolism has systemic effects on child development.
Empar Lurbe, Principal Investigator of the CIBEROBN Group and Mario Fraga from CIBERER, both responsible for the study, highlight the relevance of the Carlos III Health Institute and CIBER as a key tool for the close collaboration of the research staff which, in this case, has allowed to identify molecular alterations in newborns that depend on the metabolic state of the mother and that, therefore, can help to develop prevention strategies that contribute to improving the health status of the population in general.
Source: Network Biomedical Research Center (CIBEROBN)
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