Obesity in Mothers Alters Babies' Weight Through Brain Rewiring

Obesity in Mothers Alters Babies' Weight Through Brain Rewiring
A new study in Cell pinpoints that a mother's diet during the third trimester of pregnancy can increase the chances of her offspring developing obesity or diabetes by rewiring the hypothalamus. Researchers at the Max Planck Institute for Neurological Research and the University of Cologne in Germany knew that the offspring of obese mothers were much more likely to become obese themselves, and that metabolic programming of their brains was a likely culprit. The problem was that they didn't know exactly what was happening. Using a mouse model, the scientists fed a high-fat diet to lactating mice (the hypothalamus development that occurs shortly after birth in mice is equivalent to what happens during the third trimester of pregnancy in humans) and found that the offspring had abnormal neural circuits in the hypothalamus. This abnormal circuitry led to altered insulin signaling. As a result, the offspring were overweight as adults and had problems with glucose metabolism. The researchers hope that improved testing for gestational diabetes and better blood glucose control will help prevent this metabolic programming in children.

Source:
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2014/01/140123125524.htm
Journal article: Neonatal Insulin Action Impairs Hypothalamic Neurocircuit Formation in Response to Maternal High-Fat Feeding. Cell, 2014. doi: 10.1016/j.cell.2014.01.008
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