Sex differences in the association between prenatal exposure to maternal obesity and hippocampal volume in children.

ABSTRACT:

Introduction

Animal studies have shown that male but not female offspring exposed to maternal obesity have abnormal hippocampal development. Similar sex differences were observed in animal models of developmental programming by prenatal stress or maternal diabetes. We aimed to translate this work into humans by examining sex-specific effects of exposure to maternal obesity on hippocampal volume in children.

Methods

Eighty-eight children (37 boys and 51 girls) aged 7-11 years completed the study. Maternal prepregnancy body mass index (BMI) was obtained from electronic medical records. A high-resolution anatomical scan was performed using a 3-Tesla magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scanner. Total hippocampal volume and hippocampal subfield volumes were analyzed using FreeSurfer

SUBMITTER: Alves JM 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7010582 | biostudies-literature | 2020 Feb

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature