Washington: Planning to start a family?
First lose your weight as a new research found that maternal
obesity puts a load on her offspring that lasts a lifetime.
According to a study, published in the Federation of the
American Societies for Experimental Biology Journal, obesity
in mothers predisposes offspring to inflammation-related
disorders such as Alzheimer`s, diabetes and heart problems
from the day they are born, regardless of whether or not the
babies are obese themselves.
"If there ever was a maternal hex, obesity might be it
and as it turns out, even after the weight comes off, the
biggest loser isn`t a mother, but her child," the researchers
from Duke University said.
In the study, involving rats, the team found that obesity
in mothers causes cellular programming in utero that
predisposes offspring to inflammation-related disorders.
"We hope these data will eventually lead to treatments
for obesity-associated problems, by the identification of
novel targets within the immune system," said Staci D Bilbo,
co-author of the study.
"Our hope is also that these data will lead people to
consider the consequences of their dietary intakes not only
for their own health, but also for their children`s health,
and potentially even their grandchildren`s health."
To make this discovery, Bilbo and colleagues placed rats
on one of three diets -- low-fat, high-saturated fat and
high-trans fat -- four weeks prior to mating and throughout
pregnancy and lactation.
The high-fat diets rendered the mice clinically obese.
Researchers analysed the brains of the newborn pups after
challenge by inflammatory stimuli.
Offspring born to mothers on the high-fat diets showed
increased immune cell activation and release of injurious
products like cytokines.
This overshoot was already apparent on the day after
birth. When the scientists continued to analyse the pup brains
through their juvenile and adult years, and even after the
rats were put on healthy low-fat diets, this hyper-response to
inflammation remained dramatically increased compared to rats
born to normal-weight mothers.
PTI
