Adiposity in Infants of Mothers with Diabetes
Research type
Research Study
Full title
A Pilot Study of Adiposity in Infants of Mothers with Diabetes
IRAS ID
177672
Contact name
Helen Budge
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
University of Nottingham
Duration of Study in the UK
1 years, 3 months, 0 days
Research summary
Infants born to mothers with diabetes have more body fat at birth and grow up with a higher risk of developing obesity and diabetes. This novel study aims to look at the effect of maternal diabetes on infant adipose (fat) tissue. We are using the standard methodology of quantifying and determining the distribution of adipose tissue by performing magnetic resonance (MR) scans. MR is now used as the best method of looking at brown adipose tissue in children. This special tissue produces heat and, therefore, expends energy. Brown AT is known to be present in babies to keep them warm, but diminishes in most people during childhood and early adulthood. Nothing is known about brown adipose tissue (AT) in infants of diabetic mothers. Since the retention or loss of brown AT in early life may have implications for the energy balance and body weight development of the child, we are performing two scans, at 2 weeks and 3 months of age.
We will study the relationship between maternal diabetes status, BMI and infant white and brown adiposity to determine whether differences in infants born to mothers with and without diabetes are the same at different levels of maternal BMI. We will concentrate on the infants of women in two body mass index (BMI) groups: BMI 18-25 kg/m2 or BMI 30-40 kg/m2. This will also provide data to inform sample size calculations to detect differences in brown fat across the whole BMI range.
We will collect cord blood samples as well as breast milk and/or formula milk and infant urine and faeces at 2 weeks and 3 months of age for analysis of the nutrients and hormones the infant receives at the end of pregnancy and in early postnatal life.REC name
East Midlands - Nottingham 2 Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
15/EM/0447
Date of REC Opinion
2 Dec 2015
REC opinion
Favourable Opinion