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A mother's influence on metabolic disorders

Nature Medicine volume 20, pages 244–245 (2014)Cite this article

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Michael W Schwartz

In addition to genetic and environmental factors, obesity risk involves developmental exposures including maternal overnutrition, but whether exposure must occur during gestation versus lactation remains controversial1. Vogt et al.2 report that in mice, maternal consumption of a high-fat diet (HFD) during lactation (but not during pregnancy) causes obesity and glucose intolerance in adult offspring, and a developmental alteration involving hypothalamic proopiomelanocortin (POMC) neurons may explain this outcome. Whereas neither the number of POMC cells nor their electrophysiological properties were altered, projections from POMC cells to the hypothalamic paraventricular nucleus (PVN) were reduced in offspring exposed to maternal HFD feeding during lactation. POMC neurons, which confer vital protection against obesity, establish their efferent projections during lactation1 via a process influenced by input from humoral signals such as the adipocyte hormone leptin3. Therefore, maternal overnutrition during lactation may predispose adult mice to obesity and glucose intolerance by disrupting proper formation of energy balance neurocircuits.

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A mother's influence on metabolic disorders. Nat Med 20, 244–245 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1038/nm.3502

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