Abstract
The epidemic of obesity and type 2 diabetes has a major impact on public health and underlines the urgency for identifi cation of risk groups to target preventive strategies. Studies of developmental origins of health and disease have highlighted the possible role of intrauterine exposure to maternal diabetes in the pathogenesis of overweight, type 2 diabetes, and cardiovascular disease. Furthermore, diabetes in pregnancy may also affect cognitive function in the offspring. This review primarily includes human studies of long-term implications for the offspring of maternal diabetes during pregnancy - with special focus on recent studies performed in Copenhagen. We fi nd that fetuses exposed to intrauterine hyperglycemia have a signifi cantly increased risk of development of type 2 diabetes/prediabetes, overweight, and the metabolic syndrome in childhood and adult life. Thus, based on literature and own studies, we conclude that women with gestational diabetes or type 1 diabetes during pregnancy should be informed about the excess risk of overweight, type 2 diabetes, and the metabolic syndrome in their offspring and that preventive strategies toward diabetes and cardiovascular disease are urgently needed in the next generation.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Title of host publication | Perinatal Programming. The State of the Art : The State of the Art |
| Editors | Andreas Plagemann |
| Number of pages | 11 |
| Place of Publication | Berlin, Germany |
| Publisher | De Gruyter |
| Publication date | 30 Nov 2011 |
| Pages | 141-151 |
| Chapter | 13 |
| ISBN (Print) | 978-3-11-024944-6 |
| ISBN (Electronic) | 978-3-11-024945-3 |
| Publication status | Published - 30 Nov 2011 |
