Gestational diabetes: the forerunner for the development of maternal and childhood obesity and metabolic syndrome?
OBJECTIVE
To examine the risk of obesity and metabolic syndrome in women with a history of gestational diabetes mellitus and in offspring born to mothers with gestational diabetes mellitus.


METHODS
A review of studies examining the development of obesity, hypertension, metabolic abnormalities, metabolic syndrome, and type II diabetes in mothers with a history of gestational diabetes mellitus and control mothers, and offspring of mothers with a history of gestational diabetes and control mothers.


RESULTS
Longitudinal studies demonstrate that women with a prior history of gestational diabetes mellitus and obesity are at significantly greater risk of developing metabolic syndrome than mothers with no history of gestational diabetes or obesity. The development of metabolic syndrome in children with increasing age is related to maternal gestational diabetes mellitus, maternal glycemia in the 3rd trimester, maternal obesity, neonatal macrosomia, and childhood obesity.


CONCLUSIONS
The current prevalence of obesity in both adults and children and associated disorders of blood pressure and lipid metabolism, suggest a perpetuating cycle of increasing obesity, insulin resistance, and abnormal lipid metabolism, which has ominous consequences for future generations.
Vohr
Betty R
BR
Department of Pediatrics, The Warren Alpert School of Medicine of Brown University, Providence, Rhode Island, USA. Betty_Vohr@brown.edu
Boney
Charlotte M
CM
D000293:Adolescent; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D016640:Diabetes, Gestational / Q000503:physiopathology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D008137:Longitudinal Studies; D024821:Metabolic Syndrome / Q000503:physiopathology*; D009765:Obesity / Q000209:etiology*; D016017:Odds Ratio; D011247:Pregnancy; D011297:Prenatal Exposure Delayed Effects / Q000503:physiopathology