Camelia Bhattacharyya, Amity University Kolkata
As quoted by Gilda Radner, “Motherhood is the biggest gamble in the world. It is the glorious life force. It’s huge scary-it’s an act of infinite optimism”. Several factors come into play while dealing with pregnancy. The health of the mother and the baby-to-be is taken care of where the situation is quite sensitive. One of such issues that might interfere with a normal pregnancy is pregravid obesity. Other than just leading to problems in delivery, pregravid obesity can also cause a higher risk factor for the newborn to develop cardiovascular, neurological, and endocrinological diseases.
A recent study has demonstrated how pregravid obesity leads to improper transcription and interferes with epigenetic changes. It interferes with the increase in the levels of monocytes and Th1 and Th2 cytokines and increased accessibility of chromatin and response to LPS. Thus, obesity before pregnancy can not only complicate situations during the gestation period but also leads to a weak immune system of the offspring.
Extensive study is required in this field to stop such complications. For both the betterment of the newborn and the less painful conditions of the mother.
Also read: Researchers revert damage to eyesight in mice and predict reverse aging.
Source: Messaoudi I, Sureshchandra S, Marshaw NE, Mendoza N, Jankeel A, Zulu MZ. (2020). “Functional genomic adaptations of blood monocytes to pregravid obesity during pregnancy”. doi:http://10.1101/2020.12.02.409185
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