Visual evoked potentials in offspring born to mothers with overweight, obesity and gestational diabetes

Area of Science:

• Neuroscience
• Developmental Biology
• Maternal-Fetal Medicine

Background:

• Maternal overweight, obesity, and gestational diabetes (GD) may adversely impact offspring neurodevelopment.
• Mechanisms linking these maternal metabolic conditions to infant neurodevelopment are not fully understood.
• Objective measures of infant neurodevelopment, such as cortical visual evoked potentials (cVEPs), are limited.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate the hypothesis that maternal metabolic pathologies impair cVEPs in infants.
• To assess the impact of maternal overweight, obesity, and GD on infant visual and neuronal maturity.

Main Methods:

• The PREOBE study enrolled 331 pregnant women, stratified by weight and GD status.
• Offspring underwent assessment of cVEPs (P100 wave latencies and amplitudes) and visual acuity at 3 and 18 months.
• A subsample of 157 infants at 3 months and 136 at 18 months participated in the neurodevelopmental assessments.

Main Results:

• At 3 months, infants of mothers with GD exhibited poorer visual acuity.
• At 18 months, no visual acuity differences were found, but infants of GD mothers showed significantly longer cVEP latencies.
• Prolonged latencies at 18 months, especially at 30' arc, were significant in infants of GD mothers, particularly those with concurrent overweight or obesity.

Conclusions:

• Maternal GD, especially with co-existing overweight or obesity, is associated with prolonged visual evoked potential latencies in infants at 18 months.
• This suggests a lasting, non-optimal effect of the maternal metabolic profile on infant brain development.
• Maternal metabolic health during pregnancy plays a crucial role in long-term infant neurodevelopment.