Maternal obesity: how big an impact does it have on offspring prenatally and during postnatal life?

Department of Animal Science, Center for the Study of Fetal Programming, University of Wyoming, Laramie, WY 82071, USA *Author for correspondence: Tel.: +1 307 766 2709 Fax: +1 307 766 2355 [email protected] Obesity is increasing at an epidemic rate in women of reproductive age. Not only does obesity during pregnancy lead to increased maternal health concerns, it is also linked to an increase in adiposity and components of the metabolic syndrome in the children and grandchildren of obese women. The potential transgenerational impact of maternal obesity on the health of future generations will undoubtedly result in increasing healthcare costs for society. This review will describe what is known about the specific impacts of maternal obesity on offspring in the human population as well as discuss how controlled animal experiments have shed light on the specific physiological mechanisms involved. Furthermore, preliminary experiments are presented describing potential dietary methods for preventing obesity-induced programming of offspring health concerns in postnatal life.