Birth, Development, and Health

Methylation profiles at birth linked to early childhood obesity

The paper links methylation profiles at birth to early childhood obesity by analyzing 48 infants and identifying 23 and 10 genes in cord blood and placenta associated with weight outcomes.

Exogenous corticosterone administration during pregnancy alters placental and fetal thyroid hormone availability in females.

The paper shows that maternal prenatal stress reduces placental and fetal thyroid hormone availability in female offspring, independent of maternal hormone levels.

High Maternal Adiposity During Pregnancy Programs an Imbalance in the Lipidome and Predisposes to Diet-induced Hepatosteatosis in the Offspring

This study shows that high maternal adiposity during pregnancy increases offspring susceptibility to diet-induced hepatosteatosis, with lipidomic changes linked to intrauterine environment effects.

High-fat diet in early life triggers both reversible and persistent epigenetic changes in the medaka fish (Oryzias latipes)

This study shows that early-life high-fat diet in medaka fish causes both reversible and persistent epigenetic changes in the liver, affecting metabolic genes and disease-related pathways.

Sexual Dimorphic Gene Expression Profile of Perirenal Adipose Tissue in Ovine Fetuses with Growth Restriction.

This study identifies sexually dimorphic gene expression changes in perirenal adipose tissue of ovine fetuses with growth restriction, linking them to differences in adipocyte differentiation and metabolic pathway activation.

Impact of maternal protein restriction on hypoxia-inducible factor (HIF) expression in male fetal kidney development

The paper investigates how maternal low-protein diet affects HIF-1 signaling in fetal kidney development, linking it to reduced nephron numbers and impaired renal function.

Maternal and intrauterine influences on feto-placental growth are accompanied by sexually dimorphic changes in placental mitochondrial respiration, and metabolic signalling pathways

This study shows that maternal and intrauterine environments affect feto-placental growth and placental mitochondrial function differently in male and female fetuses.

Measuring the long arm of childhood in real-time: Epigenetic predictors of BMI and social determinants of health across childhood and adolescence

This study shows that epigenetic-BMI measured from children's saliva is a valid biomarker of BMI and reflects social inequalities in childhood and adolescence.

Prenatal benzene exposure alters offspring hypothalamic development predisposing to metabolic disease in later life

This study shows that prenatal benzene exposure alters hypothalamic development in male offspring, leading to metabolic dysregulation and increased susceptibility to metabolic disease later in life.

Back to the future: omnipresence of fetal influence on the human brain through the lifespan

This study shows that birth weight consistently correlates with cortical surface area and volume across the lifespan, suggesting prenatal growth influences brain structure through brain reserve rather than maintenance.

Maternal diet disrupts the placenta-brain axis in a sex-specific manner

The paper shows maternal high-fat diet affects placenta-brain communication differently in male and female offspring, leading to sex-specific behavioral and serotonin-related changes.

Gastric administration of Cis-9, trans-11 and trans-10, cis-12 conjugated linoleic during the pregestational and gestational periods does not influence the follicular endowment of the progeny

This study evaluates the effects of CLA supplementation in mice during pregestational and gestational periods on progeny reproductive parameters and finds no significant impact on follicular endowment.

Investigating a possible causal relationship between maternal serum urate concentrations and offspring birthweight: A Mendelian randomization study

This paper uses Mendelian randomization to investigate the causal relationship between maternal serum urate and offspring birthweight, finding a weaker causal effect compared to observational studies.

Western diet-induced shifts in the maternal microbiome are associated with altered microRNA expression in baboon placenta and fetal liver

This study shows that a Western diet in pregnant baboons alters the maternal microbiome and miRNA expression in placenta and fetal liver, potentially contributing to NAFLD and metabolic disease risk in offspring.

Maternal obesity increases hypothalamic miR-505-5p expression in mouse offspring leading to altered fatty acid sensing and increased intake of high-fat food

Associations of genetic scores for birth weight with newborn size and later Anthropometric traits and cardiometabolic risk markers in South Asians

This study examines genetic scores for birth weight in South Asians, finding associations with birth size, childhood body size, and adult cardiometabolic markers.

Maternal diet-induced obesity during pregnancy alters lipid supply to fetuses and changes the cardiac tissue lipidome in a sex- dependent manner

This study shows maternal diet-induced obesity alters fetal cardiac lipidomes and serum lipidomes differently in male and female fetuses, with female hearts showing greater sensitivity.

Intergenerational effects of a paternal Western diet during adolescence on offspring gut microbiota, stress reactivity and social behavior

Fetal alleles predisposing to metabolically favourable adiposity are associated with higher birth weight

The paper examines the effect of fetal genetic predispositions to metabolically favourable adult adiposity and BMI on birth weight and other anthropometric traits, finding stronger associations with birth weight for the adiposity alleles.

Transgenerational impact of aberrant inflammation in rat pregnancy

This study shows that maternal inflammation during pregnancy can lead to transgenerational risks of cardiovascular and metabolic diseases in offspring.

Parent-of-origin effects in the life-course evolution of cardio-metabolic traits

This study examines heritability and parent-of-origin effects on cardio-metabolic traits in a birth cohort, finding age-related shifts in parental influences.

Comparison of dipsogenic responses of adult offspring as a function of different perinatal programming models

This study compares dipsogenic responses in adult offspring exposed to different perinatal programming models under various osmotic challenges, finding differential effects based on programming conditions and sodium status.

Litter expansion alters metabolic homeostasis in a sexually divergent manner

This study shows that litter expansion in mice leads to long-term metabolic changes that are sex-dependent, with males showing more pronounced effects than females.

Higher maternal adiposity reduces offspring birth weight if associated with a metabolically favourable profile

This study uses Mendelian Randomisation to show that maternal metabolically favourable adiposity is associated with lower offspring birth weight compared to general adiposity indexed by BMI.

Small-RNA sequencing reveals altered skeletal muscle microRNAs and snoRNAs signatures in weanling male offspring from mouse dams fed a low protein diet during lactation

The paper uses small-RNA sequencing to identify altered microRNA and snoRNA signatures in skeletal muscle of male mouse offspring from dams with low protein diets during lactation.

Developmental and Intergenerational Landscape of Human Circulatory Lipidome and its Association with Obesity Risk

The paper maps the developmental and intergenerational changes in the human circulatory lipidome and identifies lipid signatures associated with obesity risk in mothers and offspring.

Genetic control of fetal placental genomics contributes to development of health and disease

The paper identifies placental gene-trait associations across the life course using multi-omics data, finding genetic effects on early-life traits but not later ones.

Precocious hippocampal structural and functional changes in gestational protein-restricted male elderly offspring: an Alzheimer-simile disease model?

This paper investigates the effects of gestational protein restriction on hippocampal structure and function in male offspring, finding accelerated functional decline and AD-like biomarker deposition.

Paternal multigenerational exposure to an obesogenic diet drives epigenetic predisposition to metabolic disorders

The paper shows that multigenerational paternal exposure to an obesogenic diet in mice leads to progressive metabolic disorders in offspring, with some phenotypes persisting even after returning to a normal diet.

Exposure to maternal high-fat diet induces extensive changes in the brain of adult offspring

This study shows that maternal high-fat diet exposure leads to persistent brain changes in adult offspring, affecting regions linked to neurodevelopmental disorders.