Maternal Low-Grade Chronic Inflammation and Intrauterine Programming of Health and Disease
Open Access
- 8 February 2021
- journal article
- review article
- Published by MDPI AG in International Journal of Molecular Sciences
- Vol. 22 (4), 1732
- https://doi.org/10.3390/ijms22041732
Abstract
Overweight and obesity during pregnancy have been associated with increased birth weight, childhood obesity, and noncommunicable diseases in the offspring, leading to a vicious transgenerational perpetuating of metabolic derangements. Key components in intrauterine developmental programming still remain to be identified. Obesity involves chronic low-grade systemic inflammation that, in addition to physiological adaptations to pregnancy, may potentially expand to the placental interface and lead to intrauterine derangements with a threshold effect. Animal models, where maternal inflammation is mimicked by single injections with lipopolysaccharide (LPS) resembling the obesity-induced immune profile, showed increased adiposity and impaired metabolic homeostasis in the offspring, similar to the phenotype observed after exposure to maternal obesity. Cytokine levels might be specifically important for the metabolic imprinting, as cytokines are transferable from maternal to fetal circulation and have the capability to modulate placental nutrient transfer. Maternal inflammation may induce metabolic reprogramming at several levels, starting from the periconceptional period with effects on the oocyte going through early stages of embryonic and placental development. Given the potential to reduce inflammation through inexpensive, widely available therapies, examinations of the impact of chronic inflammation on reproductive and pregnancy outcomes, as well as preventive interventions, are now needed.This publication has 136 references indexed in Scilit:
- Maternal immune activation by LPS selectively alters specific gene expression profiles of interneuron migration and oxidative stress in the fetus without triggering a fetal immune responseBrain, Behavior, and Immunity, 2012
- Inflammation and pregnancy: the role of the immune system at the implantation siteAnnals of the New York Academy of Sciences, 2011
- Pregravid Obesity Associates With Increased Maternal Endotoxemia and Metabolic InflammationObesity, 2011
- Effects of Pre-Pregnancy Body Mass Index and Gestational Weight Gain on Infant Anthropometric OutcomesThe Journal of Pediatrics, 2011
- Dietary and Genetic Obesity Promote Liver Inflammation and Tumorigenesis by Enhancing IL-6 and TNF ExpressionCell, 2010
- Maternal Obesity, Inflammation, and Fetal Skeletal Muscle Development1Biology of Reproduction, 2010
- Uterine DCs are crucial for decidua formation during embryo implantation in miceJCI Insight, 2008
- Is there an intrauterine influence on obesity? Evidence from parent child associations in the Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children (ALSPAC)Archives of Disease in Childhood, 2007
- Macrophage-specific PPARγ controls alternative activation and improves insulin resistanceNature, 2007
- Inflammation and metabolic disordersNature, 2006