Umbilical Cells Could Reveal How Obesity Passes From Mother to Child

23 Aug 2016 --- New umbilical cell research could reveal how obesity is passed onto children from children of obese or overweight mothers.

Researchers at Joslin Diabetes Center now have demonstrated that umbilical cells from children of obese or overweight mothers show impaired expression of key genes regulating cell energy and metabolism, compared to similar cells from babies of non-obese mothers.

Elvira Isganaitis, M.D., M.P.H., Assistant Investigator and Staff Pediatric Endocrinologist at Joslin Diabetes Center, hopes the new findings may help to pave the way toward improved healthcare, both before and after birth, for children at heightened risk of obesity.

Suzana Maria Ramos Costa, M.D., Ph.D., of Joslin and the Federal University of Pernambuco in Recife, Brazil, who is co-first author on the paper, began the research by gathering umbilical cords after birth from healthy Brazilian women without diabetes. Costa recruited 24 overweight or obese women (with a body mass index over 25 before pregnancy) and 13 women who were not overweight for the study.

The scientists collected umbilical cells from the vein that carries oxygen and other nutrients from the placenta to the embryo. "These samples give a window into the nutrients and metabolites that are coming from the mom into the infant," said Isganaitis.

The team discovered that in these cells, increased obesity in the mothers correlated with lower expression of genes regulating mitochondria, which act as the cell's powerhouses, and of other genes regulating the production and metabolism of lipids.

“We found that the infants of obese mothers had significantly higher levels of many lipids that are known to be metabolically deleterious, like saturated fatty acids," continued Isganaitis, explaining, “Fat tissues in the obese mothers may shed fatty acids that make their way into the fetal blood and create a kind of ‘fuel overload’ for the embryo.”

"This suggests that already at birth there are detectable metabolic perturbations resulting from maternal obesity," Isganaitis said, “Changes in these cells were similar to some known to occur in obesity, insulin resistance and type 2 diabetes,” she added.

Isganaitis and her colleagues will carry out further research on umbilical cells and blood among Boston newborns to see if the study results are confirmed in this population. The team also plans to examine how such prenatal exposures may encourage certain stem cells found in umbilical cords, which can differentiate into various types of tissues, to preferentially turn into fat cells.

Isganaitis hopes that eventually it will be possible to use blood markers to identify embryos at risk for obesity or related conditions such as type 2 diabetes, and to follow up with suitable medical interventions.

“Pregnant women engage often with their healthcare providers, and you can really tap into their motivation," she said, "If we could come up with tailored interventions, if we could say, take this vitamin, exercise regularly and you can minimize obesity or diabetes risk in your child, I'm sure mothers would do it."

Isganaitis emphasized that mothers and healthcare providers also could carefully monitor the growth patterns and nutrition of children at risk of obesity, both in the first two years of life and afterwards, saying, "Your risk of chronic diseases isn't set in stone at birth. There are many different periods in which your lifelong disease risk can be modulated.”

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