Prenatal Exposure to Tobacco and Offspring Neurocognitive Development in the Healthy Start Study.

Objective: To explore the associations between prenatal exposure to tobacco and neurocognitive development, in the absence of prematurity or low birth weight.

Study Design: We followed mother-child pairs within Healthy Start through 6 years of age. Children were born at ≥37 weeks of gestation with a birth weight of ≥2500 g.

Infant Feeding Practices In a Diverse Group of Women: The Healthy Start Study.

Background: To describe infant feeding practices among a diverse group of mother-offspring pairs and identify factors associated with adherence to the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) recommendations.

Methods: Data were analyzed from 835 mother-offspring dyads in The Healthy Start Study, an ongoing longitudinal prebirth cohort in Denver, Colorado. Maternal report of infant feeding practices was obtained at 4 to 6 months and 18 to 24 months postnatally.

Maternal obesity and increased neonatal adiposity correspond with altered infant mesenchymal stem cell metabolism.

Maternal obesity is a global health problem that increases offspring obesity risk. The metabolic pathways underlying early developmental programming in human infants at risk for obesity remain poorly understood, largely due to barriers in fetal/infant tissue sampling. Utilizing umbilical cord-derived mesenchymal stem cells (uMSC) from offspring of normal weight and obese mothers, we tested whether energy metabolism and gene expression differ in differentiating uMSC myocytes and adipocytes, in relation to maternal obesity exposures and/or neonatal adiposity.

Maternal Dietary Patterns during Pregnancy Are Associated with Newborn Body Composition.

Maternal dietary intake during pregnancy may influence offspring growth and adiposity. Specific dietary patterns associated with newborn adiposity have not been identified. We aimed to identify patterns of maternal dietary intake associated with gestational weight gain (GWG) and fasting glucose during pregnancy and to evaluate whether adherence to these patterns is associated with newborn adiposity.

Nicotinamide Promotes Adipogenesis in Umbilical Cord-Derived Mesenchymal Stem Cells and Is Associated with Neonatal Adiposity: The Healthy Start BabyBUMP Project.

The cellular mechanisms whereby excess maternal nutrition during pregnancy increases adiposity of the offspring are not well understood. However, nicotinamide (NAM), a fundamental micronutrient that is important in energy metabolism, has been shown to regulate adipogenesis through inhibition of SIRT1. Here we tested three novel hypotheses: 1) NAM increases the adipogenic response of human umbilical cord tissue-derived mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) through a SIRT1 and PPARγ pathway; 2) lipid potentiates the NAM-enhanced adipogenic response; and 3) the adipogenic response to NAM is associated with increased percent fat mass (%FM) among neonates.

Mesenchymal Stem Cells From Infants Born to Obese Mothers Exhibit Greater Potential for Adipogenesis: The Healthy Start BabyBUMP Project.

Maternal obesity increases the risk for pediatric obesity; however, the molecular mechanisms in human infants remain poorly understood. We hypothesized that mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) from infants born to obese mothers would demonstrate greater potential for adipogenesis and less potential for myogenesis, driven by differences in β-catenin, a regulator of MSC commitment. MSCs were cultured from the umbilical cords of infants born to normal-weight (prepregnancy [pp] BMI 21.

Validation of the Sense of Coherence Scale in an American Indian population.

This study examined the psychometric properties of the Sense of Coherence (SOC) scale in the context of an oral health-related clinical trial conducted in an American Indian population-specifically, people of the Navajo Nation. Data were derived from baseline evaluations of parents (or caregivers) of Navajo children aged 3-5 from 52 Head Start classes enrolled in a trial of an intervention to prevent early childhood caries (ECC). A 190-item Basic Research Factors Questionnaire, which included the SOC, was administered to 1,016 parents/caregivers.

Associations of maternal BMI and gestational weight gain with neonatal adiposity in the Healthy Start study.

Background: Maternal obesity and weight gain during pregnancy are risk factors for child obesity. Associations may be attributable to causal effects of the intrauterine environment or genetic and postnatal environmental factors.

Objective: We estimated associations of maternal prepregnancy body mass index (BMI) and gestational weight gain (GWG) overall and in early pregnancy, midpregnancy, and late pregnancy with neonatal adiposity.

Testing the fuel-mediated hypothesis: maternal insulin resistance and glucose mediate the association between maternal and neonatal adiposity, the Healthy Start study.

Aims/hypothesis: In women who are overweight or obese before or during pregnancy there is an associated risk of increased fetal growth and higher birthweight. The metabolic phenotype of the overweight/obese pregnant woman, characterised by higher than normal insulin resistance (IR) and increased circulating fuels, suggests a mechanism resulting in fetal overnutrition and subsequent increased adiposity. We tested the fuel-mediated hypothesis in an observational pre-birth cohort of 951 mother-offspring pairs, the Healthy Start study.

Maternal fuels and metabolic measures during pregnancy and neonatal body composition: the healthy start study.

Context: The impact of specific maternal fuels and metabolic measures during early and late gestation on neonatal body composition is not well defined.

Objective: To determine how circulating maternal glucose, lipids, and insulin resistance in the first and second halves of pregnancy influence neonatal body composition.

Design: A prospective pre-birth cohort enrolling pregnant women, the Healthy Start Study, was conducted, in which fasting maternal serum samples were collected twice during pregnancy to measure glucose, insulin, hemoglobin A1c, triglyceride, total cholesterol, high-density lipoprotein, and free fatty acids.