Abstract:
Greater than ½ of women in the U.S. enter pregnancy as overweight (OW) or obese (OB), significantly increasing their offspring’s susceptibility to future obesity, diabetes and cardiovascular disease (CVD). Fetal epicardial fat thickness (EFT), a depot of visceral adiposity may serve as a biomarker for future CVD risk. Due to the current lack of existing data concerning associations between maternal OW/OB and fetal life, we sought to test whether maternal OW/OB is associated with increased EFT at 32 weeks of gestation. This prospective study enrolled (n=24) mother-infant dyads who completed fetal echocardiogram at ~32 weeks gestation . Fetal cardiac function and fetal epicardial fat thickness was measured using standard fetal echocardiogram at ~32 weeks gestation on the Oklahoma Health Campus. Fetal epicardial fat was identified as the hypoechogenic area between the visceral pericardium and myocardium. A total of 24 mother-infant dyads were enrolled (N=13 OW/OB; N=11 NW). The fetal epicardial fat thickness was significantly (p < 0.05) higher (0.23 ± 0.04 mm) in the fetuses from OW/OB mothers compared to fetuses from NW mothers (0.14 ± 0.07 mm). Though early, these data suggest that fetal programming for obesity and future CVD likely starts in-utero and may serve as a guide for future work in the development of interventions for high-risk populations starting in-utero, improving metabolic health and quality of life for future generations.
