CoChat
Sign Up
Cited by 75Birth, Development, and HealthGestational Diabetes Research and ManagementPregnancy and preeclampsia studies

Obesity: A Transgenerational Problem Linked to Nutrition during Pregnancy

Open access
Grove, Kevin, Frias, Antonio·2012·Seminars in Reproductive Medicine
DOI 10.1055/s-0032-1328875PMC PMC3615704
Open this paper in CoChat — free account

Abstract

The increased obstetric risks of maternal obesity have been well described. These include increased risks of gestational diabetes mellitus, preeclampsia, stillbirth, and cesarean delivery. The fetal/neonatal consequences of prenatal maternal obesity have received less attention. In addition to an increased risk of stillbirth, the fetal/neonatal consequences include increased adiposity and a metabolic status that increases the lifetime risk of obesity and diabetes. This review focuses on the clinical obstetric consequences of maternal obesity and highlights recent mechanistic insights on fetal programming as well as evidence suggesting that prenatal care provides a unique opportunity to ameliorate these risks and decrease the cycle of childhood obesity.

The claims and statistics of this paper haven’t been checked yet.

Run the check — free, no account needed. It reads the open-access text and checks the sources it cites.

A few free checks a day · papers already verified open instantly · results are public

Integrity signals

Registry

Crossref · 10.1055/s-0032-1328875

Cites

1 of 1 references verified0 citation errors · 0 not checkable

Statistics

Claims the paper makes

The claims and statistics of this paper haven’t been checked yet.

Run the check — free, no account needed. It reads the open-access text and checks the sources it cites.

A few free checks a day · papers already verified open instantly · results are public

Claims other papers make about this one

Each is checked against this paper’s own text: does it say what the citing paper says it does?

  • In obese pregnant women, excess adiposity leads to increased insulin resistance, altered lipid metabolism, and inflammation, increasing nutrient flux from mother to fetus and promoting placental changes.

    “In obese pregnant women, normal physiology is disrupted by excess adiposity, which leads to increased insulin resistance, altered lipid metabolism, and inflammation. This disruption increases the nutrient flux from mother to fetus and promotes changes in the placenta.”

    From Maternal Overnutrition and Fetal Programming: Long-Term Metabolic, Cognitive, and Epigenetic Consequences (2026) · cites this paper as [27]

    The “Obesity and Inflammation” section reports insulin resistance, altered lipid metabolism, and inflammation in obese pregnant women. “Obesity, Placental Function, and Fetal Growth” reports placental inflammation, but says evidence for altered nutrient transport is limited and describes increased placental transport in a mouse high-fat-diet study. It does not establish that this disruption increases mother-to-fetus nutrient flux in obese pregnant women. (LLM, conf=0.87)

    Experimental — accuracy not yet measured

Self-check

Percentages, sums and reported differences re-computed from the paper’s own numbers.

The self-check needs the paper’s full text.

Cites

Flagged first, then by citations

Research works printed but not linked: 87

  1. [1]Kopelman PG Obesity as a medical problem Nature 2000 404 6778 635 643 10766250
  2. [2]Must A Spadano J Coakley EH Field AE Colditz G Dietz WH The disease burden associated with overweight and obesity JAMA 1999 282 16 1523 1529 10546691
  3. [3]Allison DB Fontaine KR Manson JE Stevens J VanItallie TB Annual deaths attributable to obesity in the United States JAMA 1999 282 16 1530 1538 10546692
  4. [4]Ogden CL Carroll MD Curtin LR Lamb MM Flegal KM Prevalence of high body mass index in US children and adolescents, 2007–2008 JAMA 2010 303 3 242 249 20071470
  5. [5]Caprio S Relationship between abdominal visceral fat and metabolic risk factors in obese adolescents Am J Hum Biol 1999 11 2 259 266 11533949
  6. [6]Dietz WH Bellizzi MC Introduction: the use of body mass index to assess obesity in children Am J Clin Nutr 1999 70 1 123S 125S 10419414
  7. [7]Janssen I Katzmarzyk PT Srinivasan SR Combined influence of body mass index and waist circumference on coronary artery disease risk factors among children and adolescents Pediatrics 2005 115 6 1623 1630 15930225
  8. [8]Boney CM Verma A Tucker R Vohr BR Metabolic syndrome in childhood: association with birth weight, maternal obesity, and gestational diabetes mellitus Pediatrics 2005 115 3 e290 e296 15741354
  9. [9]Gluckman PD Hanson MA Cooper C Thornburg KL Effect of in utero and early-life conditions on adult health and disease N Engl J Med 2008 359 1 61 73 18596274 PMC3923653
  10. [10]Barker DJ Osmond C Infant mortality, childhood nutrition, and ischaemic heart disease in England and Wales Lancet 1986 1 8489 1077 1081 2871345
  11. [11]Hales CN Barker DJ Type 2 (non-insulin-dependent) diabetes mellitus: the thrifty phenotype hypothesis Diabetologia 1992 35 7 595 601 1644236
  12. [12]Barker DJ Osmond C Forsén TJ Kajantie E Eriksson JG Trajectories of growth among children who have coronary events as adults N Engl J Med 2005 353 17 1802 1809 16251536
  13. [13]Oken E Gillman MW Fetal origins of obesity Obes Res 2003 11 4 496 506 12690076
  14. [14]Perlow JH Morgan MA Montgomery D Towers CV Porto M Perinatal outcome in pregnancy complicated by massive obesity Am J Obstet Gynecol 1992 167 4 Pt 1 958 962 1415432
  15. [15]Ehrenberg HM Mercer BM Catalano PM The influence of obesity and diabetes on the prevalence of macrosomia Am J Obstet Gynecol 2004 191 3 964 968 15467573
  16. [16]Kim SY Dietz PM England L Morrow B Callaghan WM Trends in pre-pregnancy obesity in nine states, 1993–2003 Obesity (Silver Spring) 2007 15 4 986 993 17426334
  17. [17]Nohr EA Vaeth M Bech BH Henriksen TB Cnattingius S Olsen J Maternal obesity and neonatal mortality according to subtypes of preterm birth Obstet Gynecol 2007 110 5 1083 1090 17978123
  18. [18]Catalano PM Thomas A Huston-Presley L Amini SB Increased fetal adiposity: a very sensitive marker of abnormal in utero development Am J Obstet Gynecol 2003 189 6 1698 1704 14710101
  19. [19]Cnattingius S Bergström R Lipworth L Kramer MS Prepregnancy weight and the risk of adverse pregnancy outcomes N Engl J Med 1998 338 3 147 152 9428815
  20. [20]Kristensen J Vestergaard M Wisborg K Kesmodel U Secher NJ Pre-pregnancy weight and the risk of stillbirth and neonatal death BJOG 2005 112 4 403 408 15777435
  21. [21]Nohr EA Bech BH Davies MJ Frydenberg M Henriksen TB Olsen J Prepregnancy obesity and fetal death: a study within the Danish National Birth Cohort Obstet Gynecol 2005 106 2 250 259 16055572
  22. [22]Sullivan EL Grove KL Metabolic imprinting in obesity Forum Nutr 2010 63 186 194 19955786 PMC3255478
  23. [23]Strauss RS Dietz WH Effects of intrauterine growth retardation in premature infants on early childhood growth J Pediatr 1997 130 1 95 102 9003857
  24. [24]Ozanne SE Hales CN The long-term consequences of intra-uterine protein malnutrition for glucose metabolism Proc Nutr Soc 1999 58 3 615 619 10604194
  25. [25]Roseboom TJ van der Meulen JH Osmond C Barker DJ Ravelli AC Bleker OP Plasma lipid profiles in adults after prenatal exposure to the Dutch famine Am J Clin Nutr 2000 72 5 1101 1106 11063435
  26. [26]Ravelli AC van Der Meulen JH Osmond C Barker DJ Bleker OP Obesity at the age of 50.y in men and women exposed to famine prenatally Am J Clin Nutr 1999 70 5 811 816 10539740
  27. [27]Ravelli AC van der Meulen JH Michels RP Glucose tolerance in adults after prenatal exposure to famine Lancet 1998 351 9097 173 177 9449872
  28. [28]Ravelli GP Stein ZA Susser MW Obesity in young men after famine exposure in utero and early infancy N Engl J Med 1976 295 7 349 353 934222
  29. [29]Silverman BL Landsberg L Metzger BE Fetal hyperinsulinism in offspring of diabetic mothers. Association with the subsequent development of childhood obesity Ann N Y Acad Sci 1993 699 36 45 8267335
  30. [30]Plagemann A Harder T Kohlhoff R Rohde W Dörner G Overweight and obesity in infants of mothers with long-term insulin-dependent diabetes or gestational diabetes Int J Obes Relat Metab Disord 1997 21 6 451 456 9192228
  31. [31]Garcia Carrapato MR The offspring of gestational diabetes J Perinat Med 2003 31 1 5 11 12661138
  32. [32]Wilkin TJ Metcalf BS Murphy MJ Kirkby J Jeffery AN Voss LD The relative contributions of birth weight, weight change, and current weight to insulin resistance in contemporary 5-year-olds: the EarlyBird Study Diabetes 2002 51 12 3468 3472 12453901
  33. [33]Lumeng CN Saltiel AR Inflammatory links between obesity and metabolic disease J Clin Invest 2011 121 6 2111 2117 21633179 PMC3104776
  34. [34]Hotamisligil GS Inflammation and metabolic disorders Nature 2006 444 7121 860 867 17167474
  35. [35]Ramsay JE Ferrell WR Crawford L Wallace AM Greer IA Sattar N Maternal obesity is associated with dysregulation of metabolic, vascular, and inflammatory pathways J Clin Endocrinol Metab 2002 87 9 4231 4237 12213876
  36. [36]Xu H Barnes GT Yang Q Chronic inflammation in fat plays a crucial role in the development of obesity-related insulin resistance J Clin Invest 2003 112 12 1821 1830 14679177 PMC296998
  37. [37]Stewart FM Freeman DJ Ramsay JE Greer IA Caslake M Ferrell WR Longitudinal assessment of maternal endothelial function and markers of inflammation and placental function throughout pregnancy in lean and obese mothers J Clin Endocrinol Metab 2007 92 3 969 975 17192290
  38. [38]Madan JC Davis JM Craig WY Maternal obesity and markers of inflammation in pregnancy Cytokine 2009 47 1 61 64 19505831
  39. [39]Okereke NC Huston-Presley L Amini SB Kalhan S Catalano PM Longitudinal changes in energy expenditure and body composition in obese women with normal and impaired glucose tolerance Am J Physiol Endocrinol Metab 2004 287 3 E472 E479 15113705
  40. [40]Blackburn P Després JP Lamarche B Postprandial variations of plasma inflammatory markers in abdominally obese men Obesity (Silver Spring) 2006 14 10 1747 1754 17062804
  41. [41]Alipour A Elte JW van Zaanen HC Rietveld AP Cabezas MC Postprandial inflammation and endothelial dysfunction Biochem Soc Trans 2007 35 Pt 3 466 469 17511629
  42. [42]Donath MY Böni-Schnetzler M Ellingsgaard H Halban PA Ehses JA Cytokine production by islets in health and diabetes: cellular origin, regulation and function Trends Endocrinol Metab 2010 21 5 261 267 20096598
  43. [43]Ehses JA Böni-Schnetzler M Faulenbach M Donath MY Macrophages, cytokines and beta-cell death in Type 2 diabetes Biochem Soc Trans 2008 36 Pt 3 340 342 18481953
  44. [44]Heerwagen MJ Miller MR Barbour LA Friedman JE Maternal obesity and fetal metabolic programming: a fertile epigenetic soil Am J Physiol Regul Integr Comp Physiol 2010 299 3 R711 R722 20631295 PMC2944425
  45. [45]Hotamisligil GS Shargill NS Spiegelman BM Adipose expression of tumor necrosis factor-alpha: direct role in obesity-linked insulin resistance Science 1993 259 5091 87 91 7678183
  46. [46]Straczkowski M Dzienis-Straczkowska S Stêpieñ A Kowalska I Szelachowska M Kinalska I Plasma interleukin-8 concentrations are increased in obese subjects and related to fat mass and tumor necrosis factor-alpha system J Clin Endocrinol Metab 2002 87 10 4602 4606 12364441
  47. [47]Chen YD Golay A Swislocki AL Reaven GM Resistance to insulin suppression of plasma free fatty acid concentrations and insulin stimulation of glucose uptake in noninsulin-dependent diabetes mellitus J Clin Endocrinol Metab 1987 64 1 17 21 3782431
  48. [48]Lee JY Sohn KH Rhee SH Hwang D Saturated fatty acids, but not unsaturated fatty acids, induce the expression of cyclooxygenase-2 mediated through Toll-like receptor 4 J Biol Chem 2001 276 20 16683 16689 11278967
  49. [49]Nguyen MT Favelyukis S Nguyen AK A subpopulation of macrophages infiltrates hypertrophic adipose tissue and is activated by free fatty acids via Toll-like receptors 2 and 4 and JNK-dependent pathways J Biol Chem 2007 282 48 35279 35292 17916553
  50. [50]Laine PS Schwartz EA Wang Y Palmitic acid induces IP-10 expression in human macrophages via NF-kappaB activation Biochem Biophys Res Commun 2007 358 1 150 155 17467667
  51. [51]Hong EG Ko HJ Cho YR Interleukin-10 prevents diet-induced insulin resistance by attenuating macrophage and cytokine response in skeletal muscle Diabetes 2009 58 11 2525 2535 19690064 PMC2768157
  52. [52]Saghizadeh M Ong JM Garvey WT Henry RR Kern PA The expression of TNF alpha by human muscle. Relationship to insulin resistance J Clin Invest 1996 97 4 1111 1116 8613535 PMC507159
  53. [53]Ehrenberg HM Huston-Presley L Catalano PM The influence of obesity and gestational diabetes mellitus on accretion and the distribution of adipose tissue in pregnancy Am J Obstet Gynecol 2003 189 4 944 948 14586331
  54. [54]Butte NF Ellis KJ Wong WW Hopkinson JM Smith EO Composition of gestational weight gain impacts maternal fat retention and infant birth weight Am J Obstet Gynecol 2003 189 5 1423 1432 14634581
  55. [55]Pou KM Massaro JM Hoffmann U Visceral and subcutaneous adipose tissue volumes are cross-sectionally related to markers of inflammation and oxidative stress: the Framingham Heart Study Circulation 2007 116 11 1234 1241 17709633
  56. [56]Williams IL Wheatcroft SB Shah AM Kearney MT Obesity, atherosclerosis and the vascular endothelium: mechanisms of reduced nitric oxide bioavailability in obese humans Int J Obes Relat Metab Disord 2002 26 6 754 764 12037644
  57. [57]Silver AE Beske SD Christou DD Overweight and obese humans demonstrate increased vascular endothelial NAD(P)H oxidase-p47(phox) expression and evidence of endothelial oxidative stress Circulation 2007 115 5 627 637 17242275
  58. [58]Roberts DJ Post MD The placenta in pre-eclampsia and intrauterine growth restriction J Clin Pathol 2008 61 12 1254 1260 18641412
  59. [59]Salafia CM Vogel CA Bantham KF Vintzileos AM Pezzullo J Silberman L Preterm delivery: correlations of fetal growth and placental pathology Am J Perinatol 1992 9 3 190 193 1575840
  60. [60]Kidron D Bernheim J Aviram R Placental findings contributing to fetal death, a study of 120 stillbirths between 23 and 40 weeks gestation Placenta 2009 30 8 700 704 19535137
  61. [61]Amir H Weintraub A Aricha-Tamir B Apel-Sarid L Holcberg G Sheiner E A piece in the puzzle of intrauterine fetal death: pathological findings in placentas from term and preterm intra-uterine fetal death pregnancies J Matern Fetal Neonatal Med 2009 22 9 759 764 19526426
  62. [62]Khan IY Taylor PD Dekou V Gender-linked hypertension in offspring of lard-fed pregnant rats Hypertension 2003 41 1 168 175 12511548
  63. [63]Khan IY Dekou V Douglas G A high-fat diet during rat pregnancy or suckling induces cardiovascular dysfunction in adult offspring Am J Physiol Regul Integr Comp Physiol 2005 288 1 R127 R133 15308487
  64. [64]Caluwaerts S Lambin S van Bree R Peeters H Vergote I Verhaeghe J Diet-induced obesity in gravid rats engenders early hyperadiposity in the offspring Metabolism 2007 56 10 1431 1438 17884457
  65. [65]Shankar K Harrell A Liu X Gilchrist JM Ronis MJ Badger TM Maternal obesity at conception programs obesity in the offspring Am J Physiol Regul Integr Comp Physiol 2008 294 2 R528 R538 18032473
  66. [66]Howie GJ Sloboda DM Kamal T Vickers MH Maternal nutritional history predicts obesity in adult offspring independent of postnatal diet J Physiol 2009 587 Pt 4 905 915 19103681 PMC2669979
  67. [67]Taylor PD Khan IY Lakasing L Uterine artery function in pregnant rats fed a diet supplemented with animal lard Exp Physiol 2003 88 3 389 398 12719763
  68. [68]Hartil K Vuguin PM Kruse M Maternal substrate utilization programs the development of the metabolic syndrome in male mice exposed to high fat in utero Pediatr Res 2009 66 4 368 373 19581843 PMC2795789
  69. [69]Samuelsson AM Matthews PA Argenton M Diet-induced obesity in female mice leads to offspring hyperphagia, adiposity, hypertension, and insulin resistance: a novel murine model of developmental programming Hypertension 2008 51 2 383 392 18086952
  70. [71]Carter AM Animal models of human placentation—a review Placenta 2007 28 Suppl A S41 S47 17196252
  71. [72]Rossant J Cross JC Placental development: lessons from mouse mutants Nat Rev Genet 2001 2 7 538 548 11433360
  72. [73]Wallace JM Milne JS Matsuzaki M Aitken RP Serial measurement of uterine blood flow from mid to late gestation in growth restricted pregnancies induced by overnourishing adolescent sheep dams Placenta 2008 29 8 718 724 18579200
  73. [74]Wallace JM Bourke DA Aitken RP Leitch N Hay WW Jr Blood flows and nutrient uptakes in growth-restricted pregnancies induced by overnourishing adolescent sheep Am J Physiol Regul Integr Comp Physiol 2002 282 4 R1027 R1036 11893606
  74. [75]Redmer DA Luther JS Milne JS Fetoplacental growth and vascular development in overnourished adolescent sheep at day 50, 90 and 130 of gestation Reproduction 2009 137 4 749 757 19164488
  75. [76]Reynolds LP Borowicz PP Vonnahme KA Animal models of placental angiogenesis Placenta 2005 26 10 689 708 16226119
  76. [77]Challier JC Basu S Bintein T Obesity in pregnancy stimulates macrophage accumulation and inflammation in the placenta Placenta 2008 29 3 274 281 18262644 PMC4284075
  77. [78]Roberts VH Smith J McLea SA Heizer AB Richardson JL Myatt L Effect of increasing maternal body mass index on oxidative and nitrative stress in the human placenta Placenta 2009 30 2 169 175 19100619 PMC2657925
  78. [80]Thongsong B Subramanian RK Ganapathy V Prasad PD Inhibition of amino acid transport system a by interleukin-1beta in trophoblasts J Soc Gynecol Investig 2005 12 7 495 503 16202926
  79. [81]Jones HN Woollett LA Barbour N Prasad PD Powell TL Jansson T High-fat diet before and during pregnancy causes marked up-regulation of placental nutrient transport and fetal overgrowth in C57/BL6 mice FASEB J 2009 23 1 271 278 18827021 PMC2626621
  80. [82]McCurdy CE Bishop JM Williams SM Maternal high-fat diet triggers lipotoxicity in the fetal livers of nonhuman primates J Clin Invest 2009 119 2 323 335 19147984 PMC2631287
  81. [83]Frias AE Morgan TK Evans AE Maternal high-fat diet disturbs uteroplacental hemodynamics and increases the frequency of stillbirth in a nonhuman primate model of excess nutrition Endocrinology 2011 152 6 2456 2464 21447636 PMC3100625
  82. [84]Grant WF Gillingham MB Batra AK Maternal high fat diet is associated with decreased plasma n-3 fatty acids and fetal hepatic apoptosis in nonhuman primates PLoS ONE 2011 6 2 e17261 21364873 PMC3045408
  83. [85]Grayson BE Levasseur PR Williams SM Smith MS Marks DL Grove KL Changes in melanocortin expression and inflammatory pathways in fetal offspring of nonhuman primates fed a high-fat diet Endocrinology 2010 151 4 1622 1632 20176722 PMC2850229
  84. [86]Sullivan EL Grayson B Takahashi D Chronic consumption of a high-fat diet during pregnancy causes perturbations in the serotonergic system and increased anxiety-like behavior in nonhuman primate offspring J Neurosci 2010 30 10 3826 3830 20220017 PMC2846411
  85. [87]Ismail-Beigi F Catalano PM Hanson RW Metabolic programming: fetal origins of obesity and metabolic syndrome in the adult Am J Physiol Endocrinol Metab 2006 291 3 E439 E440 16638823
  86. [88]Igosheva N Abramov AY Poston L Maternal diet-induced obesity alters mitochondrial activity and redox status in mouse oocytes and zygotes PLoS ONE 2010 5 4 e10074 20404917 PMC2852405
  87. [89]Ng SF Lin RC Laybutt DR Barres R Owens JA Morris MJ Chronic high-fat diet in fathers programs β-cell dysfunction in female rat offspring Nature 2010 467 7318 963 966 20962845

Cited by

Sorted by citations

Authors
Grove, K., & Frias, A.
Affiliations
Oregon National Primate Research Center (US)
ORCID
Venue
Seminars in Reproductive Medicine
Publisher
Georg Thieme Verlag KG
Published
2012-10-16
Volume
30
Issue
06
Pages
472-478
ISSN
  • 1526-4564 (ISSN-L)
  • 1526-8004
DOI
10.1055/s-0032-1328875
PMC
PMC3615704
OpenAlex
W1966038722
Cited by
75
References
1
Citations by year
2026: 3 · 2025: 5 · 2024: 1 · 2023: 7 · 2022: 3 · 2021: 5 · 2020: 3 · 2019: 5 · 2018: 8 · 2017: 9 · 2016: 7 · 2015: 6 · 2014: 5 · 2013: 8
FWCI
5.33
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
Locations
  • Seminars in Reproductive Medicine (publishedVersion)
  • PubMed (publishedVersion)
  • Europe PMC (PubMed Central) (acceptedVersion)
  • PubMed Central (acceptedVersion)
Funders
  • National Institutes of Health (P51OD011092)
  • National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases (R01-DK-79194, R24DK090964, R01DK079194, R24 DK0909640-01, P30DK020593)
  • National Center for Research Resources (P51RR000163, P51 RR00163)
  • Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (P01HD034430, P01-HD-34430, K12HD001243)
Topics
  • Health Sciences › Medicine › Pediatrics, Perinatology and Child Health › Birth, Development, and Health
  • Health Sciences › Medicine › Obstetrics and Gynecology › Gestational Diabetes Research and Management
  • Health Sciences › Medicine › Obstetrics and Gynecology › Pregnancy and preeclampsia studies
Keywords
maternal obesity, fetal programming, prenatal nutrition, gestational diabetes mellitus, preeclampsia, stillbirth, cesarean section, neonatal adiposity, childhood obesity, prenatal care
MeSH terms
Family Characteristics, Female, Fetal Diseases, Humans, Obesity, Pregnancy, Pregnancy Complications, Prenatal Exposure Delayed Effects, Maternal Nutritional Physiological Phenomena, Prenatal Nutritional Physiological Phenomena

About these checks

Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.

Statistics and arithmetic are recomputed, not judged.

Confidence bands are shown only for fields calibrated on our annotated test set. None is calibrated yet, so no band is shown.

What counts as a claim ›How we measure confidence ›How we check this ›

Are you an author, or do you see a problem with this page? Request a review