Maternal exercise intervention in obese pregnancy improves the cardiovascular health of the adult male offspring.

Objective: Obesity during pregnancy is associated with an elevated risk of cardiovascular disease in the offspring. With increased numbers of women entering pregnancy overweight or obese, there is a requirement for targeted interventions to reduce disease risk in future generations. Using an established murine model of maternal obesity during pregnancy, we investigated if a treadmill exercise intervention in the mother could improve offspring cardiac health and explored potential underlying mechanisms.

Maternal diet-induced obesity programmes cardiac dysfunction in male mice independently of post-weaning diet.

Aims: Obesity during pregnancy increases risk of cardiovascular disease (CVD) in the offspring and individuals exposed to over-nutrition during fetal life are likely to be exposed to a calorie-rich environment postnatally. Here, we established the consequences of combined exposure to a maternal and post-weaning obesogenic diet on offspring cardiac structure and function using an established mouse model of maternal diet-induced obesity.

Methods And Results: The impact of the maternal and postnatal environment on the offspring metabolic profile, arterial blood pressure, cardiac structure, and function was assessed in 8-week-old C57BL/6 male mice.