Association between gestational diabetes mellitus exposure and childhood adiposity is not substantially explained by offspring genetic risk of obesity. Issue 12 (15th November 2017)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Raghavan, S.; Zhang, W.; Yang, I. V.; Lange, L. A.; Lange, E. M.; Fingerlin, T. E.; Dabelea, D.
• Is Part Of: Diabetic medicine. Volume 34:Issue 12(2017)
• Page Start: 1696
• Page End: 1700
• Publication Date: 2017-11-15
• Subjects: Diabetes -- Periodicals; 616.462
• DOI: 10.1111/dme.13529
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0742-3071

Abstract

Abstract: Aim: To examine the extent to which offspring obesity‐associated genetic risk explains the association between gestational diabetes mellitus and childhood adiposity. Methods: We studied 282 children aged 7–12 years who were enrolled in the Exploring Perinatal Outcomes in Children Study. A genetic risk score for BMI was calculated as the count of 91 established BMI‐raising risk alleles. Multivariable linear and logistic regression models were used to estimate associations between the offspring genetic risk score and exposure to gestational diabetes and childhood adiposity (BMI and waist circumference), adjusting for clinical and demographic covariates. The contribution of offspring genetic risk to associations between maternal gestational diabetes and childhood outcomes was estimated by comparing the regression coefficients for the gestational diabetes variable in models with and without the genetic risk score. Results: The offspring BMI genetic risk score was associated with childhood BMI ( P = 0.006) and waist circumference ( P = 0.02), and marginally with gestational diabetes ( P = 0.05). Offspring BMI genetic risk did not contribute significantly to associations between gestational diabetes and childhood BMI [7.7% (95% CI –3.3, 18.8)] or waist circumference [5.8% (95% CI –3.1, 14.8); P = 0.2 for both]. Conclusions: Offspring obesity genetic risk does not explain a significant proportion of the association between gestational diabetes exposure and childhood adiposity. The association between gestational diabetes and childhood adiposity is probably explained through alternative pathways, including direct intrauterine effects or a shared postnatal environment. What's new?: It is not known whether the association between maternal gestational diabetes mellitus and offspring adiposity in childhood is attributable to shared obesogenic genetics, postnatal environment or direct intrauterine effects of hyperglycaemia. The Exploring Perinatal Outcomes in Children Study is an observational cohort study that assessed maternal–child dyads from pregnancies complicated by gestational diabetes and used offspring common variant genotyping to investigate offspring genetic contributions to associations between gestational diabetes and childhood outcomes. Common obesity genetic risk variants in offspring explain only a minor proportion of the association between maternal gestational diabetes and offspring childhood adiposity.