The kids aren't alright: maternal obesity leaves a sex-specific epigenetic mark on the offspring heart
Year: 2026
Type: editorial
Abstract: Obesity prevalence continues to rise worldwide, with 1/3 of children and 2/3 of adults forecasted to be living with obesity by 2050 (1).Obesity is associated with >20 nonoverlapping diseases across multiple organ systems, and people with obesity have up to 12 times increased risk of developing complex multimorbidity (2).The heritability of obesity is estimated to be 40-70% (3), though the degree to which the epigenome is modifiable through different exposures remains unresolved.The gestational environment represents one's first exposure following genetic recombination, a time of extreme growth and cell differentiation.Maternal obesity produces offspring with a phenotype characterized by obesity, dyslipidemia, hypertension, and metabolic inflexibility (4).However, epigenetic programming resulting from maternal obesity has not been fully explored.The study by Wilson et al, (5) provides insight into the effects of maternal obesity on the epigenetic modifications in the offspring heart.
Authors: Dallin Tavoian, Sakthivel Sadayappan
Institution: University of Arizona
Language: English
Field: Medicine
Domain: Health Sciences
Open Access status: hybrid
Awards: Slow myosin binding protein-C in skeletal muscle physiology, Molecular mechanism of hypertrophic cardiomyopathy in populations of South Asian descendants, IGF-2R is a new therapeutic target for cardiac ischemia-reperfusion injury, Translational Approaches to Health Disparities in Lung, Sleep, and Pandemics, Skeletal muscle sarcomere function in health and disease, Fast myosin binding protein-C and cardiac contractility in heart failure, Skeletal Myosin-Binding Protein C Regulation and Structural Dynamics
OpenAlex ID: W7223687681