Maternal Fish Oil Supplementation on Skeletal Muscle and Pancreas Function of Offspring

Latha Ramalingam (NFS) PI and Keith DeRuisseau (EX SCI) co-I, CUSE Grant – Innovative & Interdisciplinary Research, 7/1/21-6/30/23.

Obesity is a growing epidemic afflicting more than 42% of adults and 20% of the children and adolescents in the United States. Even more critical is that 60% of women are either obese or overweight at the time of conception]. Specifically, maternal programming through dietary intervention plays a key role in the prevention of childhood obesity and associated co-morbidities. Preventing obesity is vital as people suffering from obesity have three times higher risk of developing diabesity (obesity dependent T2D). Bioactives such as fish oil (FO) offer health benefits in terms of lowering risk of T2D and heart diseases. Further, increase in maternal fish or FO consumption is known to reduce pregnancy complications. However, the mechanisms governing these effects remain uncertain. This project addresses specifically the science behind maternal fish oil consumption in reducing/preventing maternal obesity dependent Type 2 Diabetes (T2D) in offspring by improving offspring muscle and pancreatic function.