Smoking during pregnancy increases the risk of obesity in infants

According to the researchers, children whose mothers have smoked during pregnancy are more likely to become obese later in life.

The results, published in the journal Experimental Physiology, showed that chimerin, a protein produced by fat cells and that appears to play a role in energy storage, was more prevalent in the skin and in isolated cells infants whose mothers smoked during pregnancy.

Previous research has shown that chimerin is present at higher levels in the blood of obese people.
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The new findings suggest that smoking during pregnancy could result in changes in the regulation of genes that play an important role in the development of fat cells and, by extension, obesity.
"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 Kevin Pearson of the US. University of Kentucky in the United States.

"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.

For the study, the researchers recruited a total of 65 new mothers. All children were born at term and about half of all new mothers reported smoking during pregnancy.

Current and future results could provide a springboard for the development of effective treatments for obesity in children born to smokers, as well as those exposed to other in utero environmental exposures, in children and adults. adults, noted the team.