PORTLAND, Ore. New research in mice indicates that babies born to moms who eat a high-fat diet before and during pregnancy have a higher fat mass and smaller livers than babies whose moms consume low-fat fare, according to scientists at Oregon Health & Science University Doernbecher Children's Hospital.
The good news, the researchers report, is that moms who switch to a low-fat diet during pregnancy considerably reduce the risk of these negative effects. Their findings are published online in the American Journal of Physiology and Endocrinology Metabolism, a publication of the American Physiological Society.
Previous research has shown babies who receive too much or too little nutrition in the womb experience profound and permanent changes in their development including alterations in the structure of the liver, brain and pancreas that increase their susceptibility to developing various diseases later in life, including obesity, diabetes and cardiovascular disease.
And given that nearly half of women of childbearing age are overweight or obese in the United States, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, there is a pressing need to inform women and their health care providers of the inherent dangers maternal overeating poses to their child's future health and risk of chronic disease.
"One of the key findings here is that the offspring are born with a marked shift in body composition, away from lean mass and toward fat mass, prior to any dietary exposure in the offspring themselves," said principal investigator Stephanie M. Krasnow, Ph.D., a scientist in the Pap Family Pediatric Research Institute at OHSU Doernbecher Children's Hospital.
Krasnow and colleagues in the Daniel Marks Lab used a mouse model to examine how consumption of a high-fat diet during pregnancy effects body composition in the newborn. Female mice were fed either a low-fat or high-fat diet for six months and were m
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| Contact: Tamara Hargens-Bradley hargenst@ohsu.edu 503-494-8231 Oregon Health & Science University Source:Eurekalert |
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