Normalizing adiponectin levels in obese pregnant mice prevents adverse metabolic outcomes in offspring

What is it about?

Almost 2/3 of all American pregnant women are overweight or obese, which increases the risk for the infant to develop obesity and diabetes later in life. How obesity in pregnancy causes metabolic disease in the offspring is unknown and there are currently no effective treatments to prevent these long-term adverse consequences. Individuals that are obese have low blood levels of the hormone adiponectin. Using a mouse model of obesity in pregnancy, we show that increasing adiponectin to blood levels found in lean pregnant mice prevented the development of adult metabolic disease in the offspring. This new knowledge may lead to novel treatments in pregnancy to lessen the burden of obesity and diabetes in children and adults.

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