Cellular mechanism that links smoking during pregnancy and identified risk of baby obesity

A group of researchers identified, using foreskin tissue from neonatal circumcisions, a potential cellular mechanism that links the smoking of a pregnant mother to an increased risk of obesity in her later children. in life.

Obesity is considered an epidemic in the United States. Nearly 35% of adults and 20% of children aged 6 to 19 are considered obese. Obesity is also a heavy economic burden: more than $ 150 billion is spent each year on obesity-related health care costs in the United States alone.

"It has been consistently shown that mothers who smoke during pregnancy confer an increased risk of obesity on their baby, but the mechanisms responsible for this increased risk are not well understood," said the principal investigator of the 39; study, Kevin Pearson, of the University of Kentucky (UK). . "These data mark a first step towards defining these mechanisms for a possible long-term intervention."

In collaboration with the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology of the United Kingdom, a total of 65 new mothers were recruited for the study in two different cohorts: 46 in cohort 1 (2012-2013) and 19 in in cohort 2 (2015-2016). All infants were born at term; about half of the new mothers reported smoking during pregnancy. DNA and RNA were isolated from foreskin tissue which otherwise would be discarded after the usual circumcisions and analyzed with emphasis on the expression of the chimerin gene.

Chimerin is a protein produced by fat cells and seems to play a role in storing energy. Previous research has determined that chimerin is present at higher levels in the blood of obese people. However, said Pearson, it was not measured in newborns exposed to cigarette smoke.

The results showed that chimerin was more present in the skin and in isolated cells of infants whose mothers smoked during pregnancy, suggesting that smoking during pregnancy could lead to changes in the regulation of the genes that play. an important role in the development of fat cells. , obesity.

"Our work has shown that pregnant women who smoke cigarettes during pregnancy induce distinct changes in the expression of the chimeric gene in their offspring," Pearson said.

The next step is to replicate their results in women because they were not represented in the study. Pearson et al. Offer to use umbilical cord cells. The group also hopes to study exposure to smoke during pregnancy in genetically modified mice, as chimerin and its receptor may be eliminated to highlight this path more directly. Current and future results could provide a springboard for the development of effective pediatric and adult obesity therapies for babies born to smokers as well as those exposed to other in utero environmental exposures.