Maternal obesity ups risk of heart disease in offspring

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In a study involving rats, researchers from Duke University found that obesity in mothers causes cellular programming in the womb, predisposing the offspring to inflammation-related disorders such as Alzheimer's, Parkinson's, type 2 diabetes, stroke, heart disease and others from the day that they are born, regardless of whether or not the offspring are obese themselves.

"We hope the data will eventually lead to treatments for obesity-associated problems, by the identification of novel targets within the immune system," said Staci D. Bilbo, study co-author, psychologist at Duke University-Durham, N.C.

"Our hope is also that it 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," he added.

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 offspring after challenge by inflammatory stimuli.

Offspring born to mothers on the high-fat diets showed increased immune cell activation and release of injurious products (cytokines), said a Duke release.

This overshoot was already apparent on the day after birth. When the scientists continued to analyse their 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.

The findings were published in The FASEB Journal.