A healthy body and weight during pregnancy is essential for having a healthy baby. Maternal obesity can have a negative impact on the child. Explaining this point, researchers say losing weight before conceiving lowers cardiovascular risks of the child.
The maternal weight loss and metabolic changes influence the genes in the offspring. Unveiling the mechanism behind this occurrence, researchers presented a study at the Canadian Cardiovascular Congress, recently.
"Our research found that maternal obesity affects the genes of the offspring," Dr. Frédéric Guénard, a post-doctoral fellow, said in a news release. "The good news is that we can do something to change this outcome: Reducing obesity in the mother has a positive health impact on the health of future offspring."
A team of researchers and bariatric surgeons at Laval University noticed that women who underwent bilio-pancreatic bypass surgery having children with lower risk of obesity, lower blood pressure and lower cardiovascular disease risk and improved insulin resistance.
For analyzing the factor, they included 20 mothers, and their 25 children born before the surgery and 25 siblings born after the surgery.
All the participants were aged between two and 24 years and mothers had a BMI of 45 before surgery and 27 after the surgery.
Blood samples of the children were collected and tested with a special tool called the Infinium HumanMethylation450 BeadChip.
They found gene variations in children born before and after the surgery.
"Our findings show that maternal bariatric surgery results in significant metabolic effects to the methylation profiles of inflammatory disease-related genes," Dr. Guénard explained. "The bariatric surgery and weight loss experienced by the mothers created an in utero environment that favorably changed the gene methylation levels of the fetus."
"Basically, this study tells us that maternal obesity affects the obesity and cardiovascular risk profile of offspring and that weight loss can improve the cardiovascular health of children."
These findings come at a time when one third of women of childbearing age and one in five pregnant women in the United States are obese. According to health experts, a body mass index (BMI) of 19 to 25 is the ideal weight for conceiving.
