Maternal obesity alters feto-placental cytochrome P4501A1 activity

Multi-tissue transcriptome analysis to identify candidate genes associated with weight regulation in Hanwoo cattle

While genetic markers related to meat production traits have been identified in many other cattle breeds, research on weight in Hanwoo cattle (Korean native cattle) is still insufficient. In this study, we performed expression quantitative trait loci (eQTL) analysis and differential gene expression analysis to detect candidate genes influencing the weight characteristics of 32 castrated Hanwoo cattle across 22 tissues and, we identified variants that affect gene expression levels. In total, we identified a total of 3,298 differentially expressed genes, among which we discovered key genes such as UBD, RGS2, FASN, and SCD that have functions related to adipogenesis, body weight, obesity, and lipid metabolism. Gene-set enrichment analysis revealed that candidate genes in adipose tissue are involved in metabolic pathways linked to obesity-related traits, adipose metabolism, and lipid metabolism. Additionally, we found that decreased expression of TRIM31 contributes to weight gain which can be explained by the associated candidate cis-eQTL genotypes for TRIM31 and their effect on differential gene expression between the lower and higher weight groups. Our findings revealed candidate genes associated with the weight of Hanwoo cattle and perhaps can provide comprehensive insights into the association of weight with various tissues beyond adipose tissue and muscle, indicating the potential for expanding the focus of livestock trait research.

Meta-Analysis on Associations of Timing of Maternal Smoking Cessation Before and During Pregnancy With Childhood Overweight and Obesity

INTRODUCTION

There is a lack of comprehensive review on associations of maternal smoking cessation (versus nonsmokers) with childhood overweight and obesity.

AIMS AND METHODS

We conducted a systematic review and meta-analysis of existing evidence in this field. Within PubMed, EMBASE, and CENTRAL databases, we identified and screened 1147 abstracts. We reviewed full-texts and extracted related information from 10 eligible articles. We pooled odds ratios for overweight/obesity and mean differences in BMI z-scores by maternal smoking status around pregnancy.

RESULTS

Among 10 eligible studies, 71 393 children were included from ages 2 to 18 years. Compared to children of nonsmokers, the pooled unadjusted odds ratio (OR) for overweight was 1.36 (95% Confidence Interval CI: 1.14, 1.62) in children of quitters and 1.44 (1.27, 1.64) in children of continued smokers. The pooled unadjusted OR for obesity was 1.65 (1.17, 2.32) in children of quitters and 1.94 (1.38, 2.73) in children of continued smokers. The pooled unadjusted mean difference in BMI z-score was 0.51 (0.41, 0.61) in children of quitters and 0.64 (0.58, 0.70) in children of continued smokers. The pooled unadjusted OR for overweight in children of mothers quitting before pregnancy was 1.46 (1.15, 1.85), during the first trimester was 1.52 (1.27, 1.82), and during pregnancy (mixed timing, mostly first trimester) was 0.97 (0.79, 1.20).

CONCLUSION

The risk of offspring overweight and obesity was moderately higher for quitters during pregnancy compared to nonsmokers, although it might not be as high as continued smokers.

IMPLICATIONS

Maternal smoking during pregnancy is an established risk factor of childhood overweight and obesity. Based on our systematic review, intervention to help mothers quit smoking has the potential to reduce the risk of childhood overweight and obesity in offspring related to prenatal tobacco exposure. Quitting before pregnancy is ideal, but quitting in early pregnancy is still helpful for reducing risk.

Maternal Diet Quality and the Health Status of Newborns

The maternal diet during pregnancy affects neonatal health status. The objective of this study was to assess the nutritional quality of the maternal diet, and its contamination by persistent organic pollutants (POPs), in pregnant women living in two areas of the Czech Republic with different levels of air pollution, and subsequently to assess the relationship of these two factors with birth weight and neonatal oxidative stress. To determine the level of oxidative stress, 8-isoprostane concentrations in umbilical cord plasma were measured. The overall nutritional quality of the maternal diet was not optimal. Of the nutritional factors, protein intake proved to be the most significant showing a positive relationship with birth weight, and a negative relationship with the oxidative stress of newborns. Dietary contamination by persistent organic pollutants was low and showed no statistically significant relationship with birth weight. Only one of the 67 analyzed POPs, namely the insecticide dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane (DDT), showed a statistically significant positive relationship with the level of neonatal oxidative stress.

Inflammasomes in the Pathophysiology of Maternal Obesity: Potential Therapeutic Targets to Reduce Long-Term Adverse Health Outcomes in the Mother and Offspring

Over the past 20 years, the prevalence of obesity has risen dramatically worldwide, with an increase in occurrence among women in their reproductive age. Obesity during pregnancy is associated with significantly increased maternal and fetal morbidity and mortality. In addition to the short-term adverse health outcomes, both mother and the child are prone to develop cardiovascular, metabolic and neurological disorders. Although associations between obesity during pregnancy and adverse maternalfetal health outcomes are clear, the complex molecular mechanisms underlying maternal obesity remain largely unknown. This review describes multimeric self-assembling protein complexes, namely inflammasomes, as potential molecular targets in the pathophysiology of maternal obesity. Inflammasomes are implicated in both normal physiological and in pathophysiological processes that occur in response to an inflammatory milieu throughout gestation. This review highlights the current knowledge of inflammasome expression and its activity in pregnancies affected by maternal obesity. Key discussions in defining pharmacological inhibition of upstream as well as downstream targets of the inflammasome signaling cascade; and the inflammasome platform, as a potential therapeutic strategy in attenuating the pathophysiology underpinning inflammatory component in maternal obesity are presented herein.

Grandmaternal Perinatal Serum DDT in Relation to Granddaughter Early Menarche and Adult Obesity: Three Generations in the Child Health and Development Studies Cohort

BACKGROUND

Serum DDTs during or just after pregnancy were associated with breast cancer in mothers (F0), and with breast cancer, mammographic density, and obesity in adult daughters (F1) in the Child Health and Development Studies multi-generational cohort in prior publications. Here, we investigate F0 perinatal serum DDT associations with granddaughters'(F2) measured obesity at a median age of 26 and self-reported age at menarche.

METHODS

F2 weight, height and waist circumference were measured by trained examiners. o,p'-DDT, p,p'-DDT and p,p'-DDE were measured in archived F0 perinatal serum. F0 DDT associations with F2 outcomes, accounting for F1 characteristics, were estimated in log-linear models adjusted for F0 and F1 body mass index (BMI), race, and menarche timing (N = 258 triads for obesity; N = 235 triads for early menarche). Interactions between F0 BMI and DDTs were estimated.

RESULTS

F0 o,p'-DDT was associated with F2 obesity [Odds ratio (OR), 2.6; 95% confidence interval (CI), 1.3-6.7; tertile 3 vs. 1), among normal weight F0 (70%), but not among overweight and obese F0 (P _interaction = 0.03), independent of other DDTs. F0 o,p'-DDT was also associated with F2 early menarche (OR, 2.1; 95% CI, 1.1-3.9, tertile 3 vs. 1) and this association was not modified by F0 BMI.

CONCLUSIONS

Ancestral exposure to environmental chemicals, banned decades ago, may influence the development of earlier menarche and obesity, which are established risk factors for breast cancer and cardiometabolic diseases.

IMPACT

Discovery of actionable biomarkers of response to ancestral environmental exposures in young women may provide opportunities for breast cancer prevention.See related commentary by Fenton and Boyles, p. 1459.

The effect of obesity, macronutrients, fasting and nutritional status on drug-metabolizing cytochrome P450s: a systematic review of current evidence on human studies

BACKGROUND

Cytochrome P450s (CYPs) are a class of hemoproteins involved in drug metabolism. It has been reported that body composition, proportion of dietary macronutrients, fasting and nutritional status can interfere with the activity of drug-metabolizing CYPs.

OBJECTIVES

The present systematic review was conducted to summarize the effect of obesity, weight reduction, macronutrients, fasting and malnutrition on the CYP-mediated drug metabolism.

METHODS

PubMed (Medline), Scopus, Embase and Cochrane Library databases and Google Scholar were searched up to June 2020 to obtain relevant studies. The PRISMA guidelines were employed during all steps. Two reviewers independently extracted the information from the included studies. Studies investigating CYPs activity directly or indirectly through pharmacokinetics of probe drugs, were included. Increase in clearance (CL) or decrease in elimination half-life (t½) and area under the curve (AUC) of probe drugs were considered as increase in CYPs activity.

RESULTS

A total of 6545 articles were obtained through searching databases among which 69 studies with 126 datasets fully met the inclusion criteria. The results indicated that obesity might decrease the activity of CYP3A4/5, CYP1A2 and CYP2C9 and increase the activity of CYP2E1. The effect of obesity on CYP2D6 is controversial. Also, weight loss increased CYP3A4 activity. Moreover, CYP1A2 activity was decreased by high carbohydrate diet, increased by high protein diet and fasting and unchanged by malnutrition. The activity of CYP2C19 was less susceptible to alterations compared to other CYPs.

CONCLUSION

The activity of drug-metabolizing CYPs are altered by body composition, dietary intake and nutritional status. This relationship might contribute to drug toxicity or reduce treatment efficacy and influence cost-effectiveness of medical care.

Association of Obesity With Maternal and Cord Blood Penicillin Levels in Women With Group B Streptococcus Colonization

OBJECTIVE

To compare maternal and cord blood penicillin concentrations in women with and without obesity who are receiving intrapartum group B streptococcus (GBS) prophylaxis.

METHODS

We performed a prospective cohort study of term women receiving intrapartum penicillin prophylaxis for GBS colonization (determined by antenatal rectovaginal culture). The following outcomes were compared between obese (body mass index [BMI] 35 or higher at delivery) and nonobese (BMI less than 30 at delivery) groups: penicillin concentration in maternal blood (after two penicillin doses) and umbilical cord blood, GBS rectovaginal colonization status on admission and after two completed doses, and neonatal GBS colonization (using a postnatal ear swab). Fifty-five women were needed to detect a 0.75 SD difference in cord blood penicillin concentrations.

RESULTS

Fifty-five women were enrolled and had all specimens collected; 49 had complete data for analysis (obese n=25, nonobese n=24). There was no difference in the median maternal penicillin concentration between groups (obese 4.2 micrograms/mL vs nonobese 4.0 micrograms/mL, P=.58). There was, however, a 60% lower median cord blood penicillin concentration in the obese compared with the nonobese group (2.7 micrograms/mL vs 6.7 micrograms/mL, respectively, P<.01), with no significant difference in time from last penicillin dose to delivery (obese 2.9 hours vs nonobese 1.7 hours, P=.07). The difference in cord blood concentrations remained significant after adjustment for nulliparity, hypertensive disorders, and time from last penicillin dose to delivery. Only 59.6% of women tested positive for GBS by rectovaginal culture on admission (obese 60.9% vs nonobese 58.3%, P=.86).

CONCLUSION

The median cord blood penicillin concentration was 60% lower in neonates born to women with obesity compared with those born to women without obesity. However, all concentrations exceeded the minimum inhibitory concentration. Maternal penicillin levels were not significantly different between groups. More than 40% of women who previously tested positive for GBS by antenatal culture tested negative for GBS on admission for delivery.

Strength of nonhuman primate studies of developmental programming: review of sample sizes, challenges, and steps for future work

Nonhuman primate (NHP) studies are crucial to biomedical research. NHPs are the species most similar to humans in lifespan, body size, and hormonal profiles. Planning research requires statistical power evaluation, which is difficult to perform when lacking directly relevant preliminary data. This is especially true for NHP developmental programming studies, which are scarce. We review the sample sizes reported, challenges, areas needing further work, and goals of NHP maternal nutritional programming studies. The literature search included 27 keywords, for example, maternal obesity, intrauterine growth restriction, maternal high-fat diet, and maternal nutrient reduction. Only fetal and postnatal offspring studies involving tissue collection or imaging were included. Twenty-eight studies investigated maternal over-nutrition and 33 under-nutrition; 23 involved macaques and 38 baboons. Analysis by sex was performed in 19; minimum group size ranged from 1 to 8 (mean 4.7 ± 0.52, median 4, mode 3) and maximum group size from 3 to 16 (8.3 ± 0.93, 8, 8). Sexes were pooled in 42 studies; minimum group size ranged from 2 to 16 (mean 5.3 ± 0.35, median 6, mode 6) and maximum group size from 4 to 26 (10.2 ± 0.92, 8, 8). A typical study with sex-based analyses had group size minimum 4 and maximum 8 per sex. Among studies with sexes pooled, minimum group size averaged 6 and maximum 8. All studies reported some significant differences between groups. Therefore, studies with group sizes 3-8 can detect significance between groups. To address deficiencies in the literature, goals include increasing age range, more frequently considering sex as a biological variable, expanding topics, replicating studies, exploring intergenerational effects, and examining interventions.

Impact of obese levels on the hepatic expression of nuclear receptors and drug-metabolizing enzymes in adult and offspring mice

The prevalence of obesity-associated conditions raises new challenges in clinical medication. Although altered expression of drug-metabolizing enzymes (DMEs) has been shown in obesity, the impacts of obese levels (overweight, obesity, and severe obesity) on the expression of DMEs have not been elucidated. Especially, limited information is available on whether parental obese levels affect ontogenic expression of DMEs in children. Here, a high-fat diet (HFD) and three feeding durations were used to mimic different obese levels in C57BL/6 mice. The hepatic expression of five nuclear receptors (NRs) and nine DMEs was examined. In general, a trend of induced expression of NRs and DMEs (except for Cyp2c29 and 3a11) was observed in HFD groups compared to low-fat diet (LFD) groups. Differential effects of HFD on the hepatic expression of DMEs were found in adult mice at different obese levels. Family-based dietary style of an HFD altered the ontogenic expression of DMEs in the offspring older than 15 days. Furthermore, obese levels of parental mice affected the hepatic expression of DMEs in offspring. Overall, the results indicate that obese levels affected expression of the DMEs in adult individuals and that of their children. Drug dosage might need to be optimized based on the obese levels.

Interaction between smoking and body mass index and risk of oral clefts

PURPOSE

To examine maternal smoking and body mass index (BMI) interactions in contributing to risk of oral clefts.

METHODS

We studied 4935 cases and 10,557 controls from six population-based studies and estimated a pooled logistic regression of individual-level data, controlling for study fixed effects and individual-level risk factors.

RESULTS

We found a significant negative smoking-BMI interaction, with cleft risk with smoking generally declining with higher BMI. For all clefts combined, the odds ratio for smoking was 1.61 (95% confidence interval [CI]: 1.39-1.86) at BMI 17 (underweight), 1.47 (95% CI: 1.34-1.62) at BMI 22 (normal weight), 1.35 (95% CI: 1.22-1.48) at BMI 27 (overweight), 1.21 (95% CI: 1.04-1.41) at BMI 33 (obese), and 1.13 (95% CI: 0.92-1.38) at BMI 37 (very obese). A negative interaction was also observed for isolated clefts and across cleft types but was more pronounced for cleft lip only and cleft palate only.

CONCLUSIONS

Our findings suggest that the risk of oral clefts associated with maternal smoking is largest among underweight mothers, although the smoking-BMI interaction is strongest for cleft lip only and cleft palate only. BMI was not protective for the effects of smoking; a clinically relevant increase in smoking-related cleft risk was still present among heavier women.

Transgenic increase in N-3/n-6 Fatty Acid ratio reduces maternal obesity-associated inflammation and limits adverse developmental programming in mice

Maternal and pediatric obesity has risen dramatically over recent years, and is a known predictor of adverse long-term metabolic outcomes in offspring. However, which particular aspects of obese pregnancy promote such outcomes is less clear. While maternal obesity increases both maternal and placental inflammation, it is still unknown whether this is a dominant mechanism in fetal metabolic programming. In this study, we utilized the Fat-1 transgenic mouse to test whether increasing the maternal n-3/n-6 tissue fatty acid ratio could reduce the consequences of maternal obesity-associated inflammation and thereby mitigate downstream developmental programming. Eight-week-old WT or hemizygous Fat-1 C57BL/6J female mice were placed on a high-fat diet (HFD) or control diet (CD) for 8 weeks prior to mating with WT chow-fed males. Only WT offspring from Fat-1 mothers were analyzed. WT-HFD mothers demonstrated increased markers of infiltrating adipose tissue macrophages (P<0.02), and a striking increase in 12 serum pro-inflammatory cytokines (P<0.05), while Fat1-HFD mothers remained similar to WT-CD mothers, despite equal weight gain. E18.5 Fetuses from WT-HFD mothers had larger placentas (P<0.02), as well as increased placenta and fetal liver TG deposition (P<0.01 and P<0.02, respectively) and increased placental LPL TG-hydrolase activity (P<0.02), which correlated with degree of maternal insulin resistance (r = 0.59, P<0.02). The placentas and fetal livers from Fat1-HFD mothers were protected from this excess placental growth and fetal-placental lipid deposition. Importantly, maternal protection from excess inflammation corresponded with improved metabolic outcomes in adult WT offspring. While the offspring from WT-HFD mothers weaned onto CD demonstrated increased weight gain (P<0.05), body and liver fat (P<0.05 and P<0.001, respectively), and whole body insulin resistance (P<0.05), these were prevented in WT offspring from Fat1-HFD mothers. Our results suggest that reducing excess maternal inflammation may be a promising target for preventing adverse fetal metabolic outcomes in pregnancies complicated by maternal obesity.

Consumption of a high-fat diet during pregnancy changes the expression of cytochrome P450 in the livers of infant male mice

It has been recently reported that the consumption of a high-fat diet during pregnancy exerts various effects on fetuses and newborn mice. The purpose of this study was to determine the effects of a high-fat diet during pregnancy on the expression of cytochrome P450 (CYP) in the livers of offspring. Mouse dams were fed a high-fat diet during pregnancy from the time of conception. After their birth, the newborn mice were fed a normal diet until 12 weeks of age. In the livers of the infant male mice that consumed a high-fat diet, the protein expression of CYP3A and CYP2C was decreased, and the protein expression of CYP1A and CYP2E was increased at 6 and 12 weeks of age. However, almost no changes were observed in the CYP proteins at 6 and 12 weeks of age in the livers of the infant female mice that consumed a high-fat diet. The amount of pregnane X receptor (PXR) translocated into the nucleus was reduced in the livers of infant male mice that consumed a high-fat diet. However, there was neither an increase in tumor necrosis factor-α or interleukin-1β nor a decrease in lithocholic acid. These data suggested that CYP3A and CYP2C might decrease as a result of the decrease in the amount of nuclear PXR in infant male mice that consumed a high-fat diet. The results of this study suggested that the consumption of a high-fat diet by pregnant mothers may be one explanation for individual differences in pharmacokinetics.