Delivery by cesarean section leads to heavier adult bodyweight in prairie voles (Microtus ochrogaster).

ABSTRACT: Delivery by cesarean section now makes up 32.1 % of all births in the United States. Meta-analyses have estimated that delivery by cesarean section is associated with a > 50 % increased risk for childhood obesity by 5 years of age. While this association is independent of maternal obesity, breastfeeding, and heritable factors, studies in humans have been unable to test for a causal role of cesarean delivery in this regard. Here, we set out to use an animal model to experimentally test whether delivery by cesarean section would increase offspring weight in adulthood. Delivery by cesarean section may exert neurodevelopmental consequences by impacting hormones that are important at birth as well as during metabolic regulation in later life, such as oxytocin and vasopressin. The prairie vole (

SUBMITTER: Kenkel WM 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC10961198 | biostudies-literature | 2024 Apr

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature