Maternal pre-pregnancy body mass index is associated with newborn offspring hypothalamic mean diffusivity: a prospective dual-cohort study.

ABSTRACT:

Background

An extensive body of animal literature supports the premise that maternal obesity during pregnancy can alter the development of the fetal hypothalamus (HTH, a critical regulator of energy balance) with implications for offspring obesity risk (i.e., long-term energy imbalance). Yet, the relationship in humans between maternal overweight/obesity during pregnancy and fetal hypothalamic development remains largely unknown. Here, using an international (Finland and California, USA) multi-site diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) dataset, we test the hypothesis that maternal pre-pregnancy BMI is associated with newborn offspring HTH mean diffusivity (HTH MD, a replicable neural correlate of BMI in adults).

Methods

HTH MD was independently quantified in two separate BMI-matche

SUBMITTER: Rasmussen JM 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC9930241 | biostudies-literature | 2023 Feb

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature