- Recent press releases
-
- Antioxidants may prevent cognitive impairment in diabetes
- Skin inflammation may increase your risk of type-2 diabetes
- Debate - Is the gut or the brain more important in regulating appetite and metabolism?
- Routine vitamin B12 screening may prevent irreversible nerve damage in type-2 diabetes
- Good nutrition could protect children from cognitive difficulties caused by early-life stress
- Women more resilient to extreme physical activity than previously reported
- Oestrogens in cows’ milk are unlikely to pose a threat to adult health
- Diabetic patients are more at risk of death from alcohol, accidents and suicide
- Too much vitamin A may increase risk of bone fractures
- Vitamin D supplements may promote weight loss in obese children
- Vitamin B supplements may protect kidney function in children with diabetes
- Bad habits in childhood may lead to an ‘unhealthy’ balance of gut bacteria and increase health risks in later life
- Lord Robert Winston cautions that advances in infertility therapies may be hindered by over-regulation
- New link identified between inflammation and depression in type-1 diabetes
- Walking a tightrope: universal thyroid testing could reduce pregnancy problems in some cases, but interfere with healthy pregnancies in others
- Brain stimulation may reduce food cravings as obesity treatment
- Larger waistlines are linked to higher risk of vitamin D deficiency
- Transgender brains are more like their desired gender from an early age
- Could intermittent fasting diets increase diabetes risk?
- Minimising exposure to common hormone-disrupting chemicals may reduce obesity rates
- Brain development disorders in children linked to common environmental toxin exposures
- Children born to mothers with low vitamin D levels may develop autism-like behaviours
- Over-the-counter antihistamines linked to impaired fertility in men
- Arthritis drug can lower sugar levels in diabetes
- Potential new target for reducing osteoporosis risk in men
- Successful male infertility treatment does not lower fertility of sons
- Warm temperatures can lead to misdiagnosis of diabetes in pregnancy
- Guidelines for management of recurrent pituitary tumours recommend new drug as first line treatment
- Taking paracetamol during pregnancy may reduce fertility of daughters
- Link found between morning sickness, smoking and healthy pregnancies
- High fat diet during childhood may increase PCOS risk later in life
- Early pregnancy test for cows improves welfare and food production
- International collaboration release revised guideline for improved management of Turner syndrome
- Treating PCOS with a combination of oral contraceptives and spironolactone does not increase the risk of diabetes or heart disease
- Vitamin D supplements could help pain management
- Breast cancer risk is more affected by total body fat than abdominal fat
- New nanotechnology application for difficult-to-treat cancers
- Just six months of frequent exercise improves men’s sperm quality
- Consuming more than two soft drinks a day can double risk of diabetes
- Age-related scarring in ovaries may explain reproductive decline
- Happy cows make more nutritious milk
- Third of pregnant women iron deficient; risk thyroid-related pregnancy complications
- New recommendations for the diagnosis and treatment of Adrenal Incidentalomas published in the European Journal of Endocrinology
- Sitting down for long periods when pregnant linked to weight gain and depression
- New drug provides safer alternative to conventional IVF treatment
- Enzyme potential target for fight against obesity and diabetes
- Bursts of high-intensity exercise could help diabetes patients manage low blood sugar levels
- Soybean foods may protect menopausal women against osteoporosis
- Vitamin D pill a day may improve exercise performance and lower risk of heart disease
- Diabetes associated with increased risk of serious bacterial blood infection
- Breast cancer risk higher in women with overactive thyroid
- Injection of appetite gene may offer a more effective alternative to dieting
- Hyperthyroidism could be great cost to countries in disability benefits
- Mother’s hormone levels predict child’s ability to do maths
- Mentally tiring work may increase diabetes risk in women
- Obesity risk may be increased by exposure to common environmental chemicals
- Breastfeeding reduces long-term risk of heart disease in mothers
- Environmental toxins can impair sexual development and fertility of future generations
- Setting fair regulations for top female athletes that have naturally higher testosterone levels
- Sleep problems in teenagers reversed in just one week by limiting screen use
- Men ignore serious health risks of steroid abuse in pursuit of the body beautiful
- Protective effect of breastfeeding on childhood obesity risk linked to leptin gene modification
- Smoking during pregnancy may damage daughters’ future fertility
- Probiotic supplements may enhance weight loss in obese children
- Limiting mealtimes may increase your motivation for exercise
- Age is not a barrier to the benefits of weight-loss surgery
- New insights into cause and treatments for aggressive form of breast cancer
- Stress with disrupted body clock increases risk of metabolic disease
- Impaired liver function during pregnancy may increase risk of childhood obesity
- Vitamin B12 deficiency linked to obesity during pregnancy
- Common anti-inflammatory may increase risk of diabetes
- Mindfulness helps obese children lose weight
- Larger thighs associated with lower risk of heart disease in obesity
- COVID-19 severity is increased in patients with mild obesity
- Thyroid inflammation linked to anxiety disorders
- Evaluating hormone-related targets & risks associated with COVID-19
- Ghrelin may be an effective treatment for age-related muscle loss
- Probiotics may help manage childhood obesity
- Skin lightening products linked to altered steroid hormone levels
- Vitamin D levels in the blood can predict future health risks & death
- COVID-19 infection may impair fertility in men
- Obesity is linked to heavy periods and impaired womb repair
- New app helps parents identify treatable childhood growth disorders earlier
- Web of Science announces 2022 Journal Impact Factors
- More news
Impaired liver function during pregnancy may increase risk of childhood obesity
Nov 2019
Impaired liver function during pregnancy may alter gut bacteria composition and increase the risk of obesity in children, according to results presented at The Society for Endocrinology Annual Conference. In a rodent of model of the most common liver disease in pregnancy, the composition of gut bacteria in offspring was altered and liver function impaired, particularly when they were fed a Western-style, high-fat diet. These findings suggest that children at risk should maintain a healthy diet and that interventions to alter gut bacteria may help reduce childhood obesity rates in the future.
The most common liver disease in pregnancy, intrahepatic cholestasis (ICP), reduces the release of digestive fluid bile from the liver causing bile acids to build up in the blood, impairing liver function, causing severe itching for the mother and increasing risks of stillbirth and preterm birth for the baby. Previous studies suggest that children of women with ICP are more likely to develop childhood obesity. Growing evidence suggests the importance of the gut microbiome for good metabolic health and that altered composition can lead to impaired metabolism and weight gain. No previous studies have investigated the effects of ICP during pregnancy on the gut microbiome of either mothers or their children. Understanding how ICP may lead to obesity in children could help prevent the risk of developing this serious and life-limiting condition.
Dr Caroline Ovadia from King’s College London and colleagues investigated how gut microbiota are affected in the offspring of a mouse model of ICP. The results reported that the offspring had a different gut microbiome composition and liver function, particularly when fed a high-fat diet, which could contribute to impaired metabolism and increase risk of obesity.
Dr Ovadia comments, “These findings further suggest that health during pregnancy can have long-term health effects on children, and in this case how gut microbiome alterations may increase the risk of obesity in children on a Western style, high-fat diet.”
The results suggest that mice born to mothers with ICP, or other liver diseases, may benefit from maintaining a healthy diet and should avoid fatty foods. These findings also suggest that targeting microbiome composition with treatment strategies in pregnant women, such as using pre-biotics or pro-biotics, could help prevent the risk of child obesity.
“Understanding changes in composition of the gut microbiome and their effects may provide new ways of diagnosing patients at particular risk of obesity before it occurs. We could then develop personalised medicine and target appropriate treatments to alter gut bacteria accordingly,” Dr Ovadia adds.
Despite some similarities, mouse and human microbiome composition differs, therefore these findings may not accurately represent outcomes in humans. However, determining effects on human microbiomes can be difficult as it is harder to obtain samples from the gut, and control diet and environment. Dr Ovadia is now examining the composition of stool samples from babies to establish whether they differ from normal if their mother had ICP. She hopes to determine if any treatments are able to alter and normalise the composition of the microbiome, with the aim of reducing the risk of childhood obesity.
---ends---
The study “Maternal diet-induced cholestasis programmes murine offspring metabolic impairment on feeding a Western diet, with altered intestinal metabolites and microbiota in the female offspring” was presented by Dr Caroline Ovadia on Monday 11 November 2019, at the Society for Endocrinology BES 2019 Conference in Brighton, UK.
The Society for Endocrinology’s annual conference was held at the Brighton Centre on 11-13 November 2019. The conference features some of the world’s leading basic and clinical endocrinologists who present their work.
The Society for Endocrinology is a UK-based membership organisation representing a global community of scientists, clinicians and nurses who work with hormones. Together we aim to improve public health by advancing endocrine education and research, and engaging wider audiences with the science of hormones. www.endocrinology.org
Recent Press Releases
Web of Science announces 2022 Journal Impact Factors
Mother’s hormone levels predict child’s ability to do maths
Hyperthyroidism could be great cost to countries in disability benefits
Injection of appetite gene may offer a more effective alternative to dieting
Soybean foods may protect menopausal women against osteoporosis