Smoking during pregnancy increases the risk of obesity in your baby

Smoking during pregnancy increases the chances of your baby becoming obese. New search published in Experimental physiology have examined the potential reasons for this phenomenon, using tissues that are normally discarded after birth.

Smoking and obesity are two of the biggest public concerns facing people around the world. Despite extensive public health campaigns, in the UK, 7.4 million (15.1%) adults were still smoking in 2017. In addition, 26% of adults and up to 20% of adults Children are obese, the overall cost of obesity for society in general being estimated at 27 billion pounds. Childhood obesity rates have increased and continue to increase, which means that environmental factors other than diet, exercise and genetics have to contribute to it. Thus, understanding some of the mechanisms behind smoking-related health problems could serve as a springboard for the development of effective treatments.

Babies born to mothers who smoke cigarettes during pregnancy have long been known to be at increased risk of preterm birth and low birth weight. However, more recent research has shown that a mother who smokes during pregnancy can result in an obese baby. Lead author Leryn Reynolds, Ph.D. and colleagues set out to find out what mechanisms might contribute to this.

Chimerin is a protein produced by fat cells and has been shown to be present at higher levels in the blood of obese people. The research team used the discarded foreskin tissue in recently circumcised newly circumcised men to study chimerine levels in neonates exposed to cigarette smoke during pregnancy. This skin was used because it is simple and safe for collection, and the research team had previously shown that it had properties similar to those of other tissues (such as fat) that would have been too invasive to be taken from babies.

The results showed that chimerin was more present in the skin of infants whose mothers smoked during pregnancy. A more detailed analysis suggested that this increased expression corresponded to a reduction in DNA methylation, a mechanism that governs the expression of chimerin. This protein is associated with obesity and as a result, increased expression could increase the risk that a baby will become obese. These findings therefore suggest that smoking during pregnancy could result in changes in the regulation of genes that play an important role in fat cell development and obesity.

One limitation of this study is that the results can not be generalized to women, as the changes were measured only in male infants. In the future, the authors plan to measure chimerine levels in the isolated umbilical cord cells of baby boys and girls, which is also easy to obtain. The researchers also hope to conduct experiments on exposure to smoke during pregnancy in mice because it is easier to control other factors that may affect obesity. Different tissues can also be measured to evaluate gene expression to better understand the impact of exposure to smoke in utero on the entire body.

Kevin Pearson, Ph.D., lead author and research paper correspondent, explained the reasons for his group's study and their goals for the future: "Our long-term plan is to study the impact of exercise during pregnancy and its ability to improve outcomes for children's health, however, as we began to transition from laboratory animals to humans, it soon became apparent that "a fairly high percentage of pregnant women giving birth in our hospital continued to smoke cigarettes throughout pregnancy, to study the mechanisms that explain why babies born to smokers are at risk of contracting future illnesses." In the future, we would like to work on ways to improve smoking cessation programs or increase the level of physical activity of smokers in order to combat the effe These results in offspring, but we are just beginning to scratch the surface in this area. "

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More information:
Experimental physiology, DOI: 10.1113 / EP087307