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Maternal GDM Status, Genetically Determined Blood Glucose, and Offspring Obesity Risk: An Observational Study
Qiying Song1,2, Leishen Wang3, Huikun Liu3
1Department of Epidemiology, School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine, Tulane University, New Orleans, Louisiana, USA.
Objective:
The purpose of this study was to estimate the associations of genetically determined maternal blood glucose levels with obesity-related outcomes among children from pregnancies with and without gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM).
Methods:
A total of 1,114 mothers with (N = 560) and without (N = 554) GDM and their children were included in the present study. A maternal genetic risk score (GRS) for blood glucose was constructed on the basis of 17 single-nucleotide polymorphisms identified from a recent genome-wide association study.
Results:
It was found that maternal GRS for blood glucose showed different associations with offspring risk of overweight and obesity, as well as adiposity measures (all P for interaction < 0.05). Among mothers without GDM, genetically determined maternal blood glucose levels were associated with an 89% higher risk of overweight in their children (95% CI: 42%-152% per SD increase in GRS, P = 1.40 × 10-5 ) and a 120% higher risk of obesity (44%-235%, P = 2.61 × 10-4 ) after adjustment for covariates. In addition, higher maternal GRS for blood glucose was associated with children's increased obesity-related traits (all P < 0.05). However, no significant associations were observed among children of mothers with GDM.
Conclusions:
This study indicates that GDM status may modify the relation between genetically determined glucose levels and obesity risk among children.
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