BACKGROUND Oxygen supplementation is given routinely to parturients undergoing Caesarean section under regional anaesthesia. While the aim is to improve fetal oxygenation, inspiring a high oxygen fraction (FIO2) can also increase free radical activity and lipid peroxidation in both the mother and baby. In this prospective, randomized, double-blind study, we investigated the effect of high inspi...

Maternal nutrition is important for the risk of the offspring to develop insulin resistance and adiposity later in life. The study was undertaken to determine effects of maternal butyrate supplementation on lipid metabolism and insulin sensitivity in the offspring skeletal muscle. The offspring of rats, fed a control diet or a butyrate diet (1% sodium butyrate) throughout gestation and lactatio...

BACKGROUND The increased consumption of n-6 polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFA) has been shown to coincide with the increased prevalence of atopic diseases. We aimed to investigate whether maternal diet and atopic status influence the PUFA composition of breast milk and the serum lipid fatty acids of infants. METHODS Maternal diet was assessed by a food questionnaire. The PUFA composition of b...

AIMS Telomeres undergo shortening with cell division, accelerated by increased oxidative stress. We aimed to demonstrate shortened telomeres in the offspring of mothers who have diabetes as a consequence of exposure to increased oxidative stress during intrauterine development. METHODS We examined the level of glycaemia (glucose, HbA1c, fructosamine), oxidative stress (lipid peroxidation) and...

BACKGROUND The aim of the present cross-sectional study was to use objective methods to assess the association between maternal smoking and body composition in offspring. METHODS A total of 2508 grade 4 school children were enrolled; all underwent lifestyle disease and passive smoking screening. Children were classified into four groups according to their urinary cotinine level and maternal s...

Iron is essential for the oxidative metabolism of lipids. Lipid metabolism changes during gestation to meet the requirements of the growing fetus and to prepare for lactation. The temporal effects of iron deficiency during gestation were studied in female rats fed complete or iron-deficient diets. Plasma triglycerides were elevated in the iron-deficient group throughout gestation. There were ti...

Maternal obesity and gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM) are associated with obesity and diabetes risk in offspring. We tested whether maternal insulin resistance, which frequently coexists with GDM and obesity, could independently contribute to dysregulation of offspring metabolism. Female mice haploinsufficient for insulin receptor substrate-1 (IRS1-het) are hyperinsulinemic and insulin resis...

Background: Mothers with preterm infants experience numerous stressful problems which can be associated with negative effects on maternal role adaptation. Objectives: The present study aimed to evaluate maternal role adaptation in mothers with late-preterm infants and its related factors. Methods: This descriptive-analytical study was conducted in Ayatollah Mousavi Hospital in Zanjan, Iran du...