Grant: Project Grant

Obesity now affects up to 1 in 5 children in Canada. Obese children are more likely to stay obese as adults and this has profound impacts on their long-term health. Indeed, obesity increases risk to develop diabetes and heart diseases among many other diseases. Events during pregnancy are suspected to play a role in 'programming' whether a child develops obesity, but we still do not know much about the mechanisms involved. Scientific and medical observations strongly suggest that "epigenetic" factors are important. The term epigenetics refers to chemical modifications of the genes that act as a change in the software reading the genetic information (hardware). Maternal conditions - such as diabetes in pregnancy - influence the environment in which the foetus develops. The environment of the foetus in the womb can affect the epigenetic marks with profound effects on the reading and expression of the genetic information throughout life. Such long-term changes involving genes implicated in weight control will have an impact on the risk to develop obesity and related chronic diseases. For this reason, the so-called epigenetic mechanisms have a real potential to explain why some unfavourable environment within the womb affecting foetal development during pregnancy may predispose newborns to develop obesity early in their life as well as diabetes and heart disease later on. Our primary objective is to identify epigenetic marks observed at birth that predict which child will become obese. Then, we will determine which specific pregnancy events, whether maternal obesity or diabetes during pregnancy, cause these epigenetic changes. Finally, the impact of these epigenetic changes on gene expression levels will be assessed. Our study will help to understand the biological mechanisms linking epigenetic events occurring during pregnancy and the increased risk for children to develop obesity.