Grant: Travel Awards - Institute Community Support

Excessive weight gain by a mother during pregnancy may adversely affect the development of her baby in the womb. In turn, this may be detrimental to the child's heart health and metabolism later in life. However, little is currently known about how these adverse developmental processes actually work. Using a cohort of participants followed from birth to age 32 years, we investigate whether certain gene-related blood markers, known as DNA methylation, may play a role. We do this by examining whether or not these markers, measured in adult participants are related to both their mothers' weight gain and their own current health. Because these blood markers can also be affected by a variety of environmental and behavioral factors, and not just mothers' weight gain, we compare the results from several statistical models to control for such factors. In our analyses, we found maternal weight gain to be related to DNA methylation of a cholesterol-related gene and that the relationship may partially explain how mother's weight gain may be related to a child's insulin function -- a component of diabetes. While much more work needs to be done, these findings potentially point towards a process by which mother's health is linked to her child's long term health, and new biomarkers which may help detect risk for diabetes. Additionally, we demonstrate several statistical methods which may be useful to other researchers asking similar questions. * The request funding will allow the oral presentation of these results at the 9th World Congress on Developmental Origins of Health and Disease in Cape Town, South Africa from November 8 - 11, 2015. This work directly applies to the IHDCYH strategic research priorities of Developmental Origins of Health and Disease through the Lifespan and Healthy Pregnancy and INMD strategic research priorities Environments, Genes, and Chronic Disease and Obesity and Healthy Body Weight.