A Potential Role for GSK3β in Glucose-Driven Intrauterine Catch-Up Growth in Maternal Obesity.

Obesity and unhealthy nutrition are increasing and affect women of childbearing age and hence during pregnancy. Despite normal or even high birth weight, the offspring suffers from long-term metabolic risks. We hypothesized that fetal growth is disturbed during different intrauterine phases.

Maternal obesity attenuates predelivery inflammatory reaction in C57BL/6N mice.

Inflammation and oxidative stress are known to increase before labour. Whether gonadal white adipose tissue (gWAT) participates in this process and whether labour-related processes in placental and adipose tissue are altered in obese women is unknown. In our mouse model, lean mice display elevated placental inflammation and oxidative stress towards the end of pregnancy, accompanied by an increased expression of pro-inflammatory factors in gWAT.