Abstract
The prenatal period, during which a fully formed newborn capable of surviving outside its mother’s body is built from a single cell, is critical for human development. It is also the time when the foetus is particularly vulnerable to environmental factors, which may modulate the course of its development. Both epidemiological and animal studies have shown that foetal programming of physiological systems may alter the growth and function of organs and lead to pathology in adulthood. Nutrition is a particularly important environmental factor for the pregnant mother as it affects the condition of offspring. Numerous studies have shown that an unbalanced maternal metabolic status (under- or overnutrition) may cause long-lasting physiological and behavioural alterations, resulting in metabolic disorders, such as obesity and type 2 diabetes (T2DM). Various diets are used in laboratory settings in order to induce maternal obesity and metabolic disorders, and to alter the offspring development. The most popular models are: high-fat, high-sugar, high-fat-high-sugar, and cafeteria diets. Maternal undernutrition models are also used, which results in metabolic problems in offspring. Similarly to animal data, human studies have shown the influence of mothers’ diets on the development of children. There is a strong link between the maternal diet and the birth weight, metabolic state, changes in the cardiovascular and central nervous system of the offspring. The mechanisms linking impaired foetal development and adult diseases remain under discussion. Epigenetic mechanisms are believed to play a major role in prenatal programming. Additionally, sexually dimorphic effects on offspring are observed. Therefore, further research on both sexes is necessary.
Highlights
WE ARE WHAT OUR MOTHERS EATOver the years numerous epidemiological findings and data from animal studies revealed the effects of mother’s nutrition on the development of offspring
Transcriptional liver profiling in the group of younger animals revealed that these individuals did not yet exhibit the characteristics of the metabolic syndrome phenotype that was observed in older rats, the results suggest that these animals might exhibit metabolic abnormalities in advance of the full metabolic syndrome phenotype observed later in life [180]
This review provided the evidence based on epidemiological data and animal models that both maternal over- and undernutrition changes the metabolic profiles, alters the body weight and fat content, and influences the offspring’s brain development and behaviour
Summary
WE ARE WHAT OUR MOTHERS EATOver the years numerous epidemiological findings and data from animal studies revealed the effects of mother’s nutrition on the development of offspring. As pandemic-related lockdowns reduced people’s physical activity and increased overeating (the factors contributing to the development of obesity), the rates of these metabolic problems are expected to increase rapidly in our society in the future, among mothers-to-be and their offspring. It is a well-known fact that the Western pattern diet (WPD), which is common in the US and other developed countries, may chronically activate the innate immune system and inhibit the adaptive immune system. These findings were confirmed by the authors of European studies on 165 adult patients with a mean BMI 26, who found that severe forms of COVID-19 were associated with high visceral adiposity [6]
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