Maternal Obesity Increases Diabetes Risk For Female Offspring

Maternal obesity has been associated with diabetic complications in the resulting offspring, according to experiments in mice reported recently by researchers at the University of Louisville.

Obesity is presently a worldwide health issue, and it is commonly considered a risk factor for diabetes, cardiovascular disease, and stroke.

When a pregnant woman is obese, her children can be affected by malformation, functional abnormalities, obesity, and type II diabetes.

Since, presently, over 18% of American women are classified as obese, and between 18 and 38% of pregnant women meet this criteria, it is an important issue in maternal and child health in this country.

However, very little is known about the mechanism of the link between maternal obesity and diabetic effects in offspring.

To investigate this association, Dr. Jianxiang Xu and Junying Han of the University of Louisville first established a viable animal model to function similarly to maternal diabetes might in humans.

Female mice, genetically predisposed to obesity and further marked with a yellow coat color, were mated with normal mice, whose offspring could then be classified by coat color for this obesity gene.

The obesity prone mice were obese between 6 and 8 weeks of age, but maintained normal blood glucose levels.

Read more information at Medical News Today