Changes in Visceral and Ectopic Adipose Tissue Stores Across Pregnancy and Their Relationship to Gestational Weight Gain.

Background: Excessive gestational weight gain has been associated with increased total body fat (TBF), metabolic syndrome, and abdominal obesity. However, little is known about the relationship of gestational weight gain with changes in metabolically active visceral or ectopic (hepatic and skeletal muscle) lipid stores.

Objectives: In a prospective study of 50 healthy, pregnant women, we assessed whether changes in weight were associated with changes in total, visceral, and ectopic lipid stores.

Pregnancy and weaning regulate human maternal liver size and function.

During pregnancy, the rodent liver undergoes hepatocyte proliferation and increases in size, followed by weaning-induced involution via hepatocyte cell death and stromal remodeling, creating a prometastatic niche. These data suggest a mechanism for increased liver metastasis in breast cancer patients with recent childbirth. It is unknown whether the human liver changes in size and function during pregnancy and weaning.