Weight-loss surgery improves the health of fat rats, but puts their offspring at risk of obesity and diabetes.

Randy Seeley and his team at the University of Cincinnati, Ohio, put female rats on a high-fat diet and then performed surgery to excise part of the rats' stomachs. After surgery, rats ate less food, lost weight and had fewer diabetes symptoms. Their offspring, however, were smaller and more susceptible to obesity and glucose intolerance compared with pups born to obese rats that had sham surgery.

For women, the authors say, weight loss alone may not stop them from passing on the effects of obesity to their children.

Science Transl. Med. 5, 199ra112 (2013)