FEBRUARY 2015

摘要

Data in this issue of Diabetes by Stanford et al. (p. 427) support a strong role for maternal exercise in reducing the risk of obesity and diabetes in offspring. Although the value of exercise in promoting overall health is undisputed, the impact of prepregnancy and gestational exercise on the metabolic characteristics of offspring is unclear. In the new report by Stanford et al., female mice that were fed a chow or high-fat diet were split into four exercise groups. One group was housed with a running wheel before and during pregnancy, a second had the running wheel before pregnancy, the third had the wheel only during pregnancy, and the fourth group was sedentary and did not have a running wheel. This design permitted the investigators to understand how the timing of maternal exercise influenced the metabolic characteristics of the offspring, and whether these relationships differed by maternal diet. Among the offspring of sedentary dams, glucose tolerance became less favorable as age increased. In contrast, age-related glucose tolerance was absent through the first year of life among the offspring of dams that exercised before and during pregnancy. Although there was some preservation of glucose tolerance among the offspring of dams that exercised only during pregnancy, this effect was not sustained, and there was no favorable impact on glucose tolerance among the offspring of dams that exercised only before conception. Interestingly, among the offspring of dams that exercised before and during pregnancy, percent body fat and body weight were not reduced until 52 weeks, suggesting that the favorable impact of exercise on the offspring was not due to early changes in body composition. Notably, among the offspring of dams that were fed a high-fat diet, those whose dams exercised before and during pregnancy were protected from the unfavorable metabolic impact of the high-fat diet, whereas the offspring of sedentary dams were glucose intolerant. These findings suggest that maternal exercise before and during pregnancy may reduce the risk that offspring will experience obesity and glucose dysregulation even when mothers have poor nutrition habits.