New article in Nature Communications

Genes responsible for the link between low birthweight and increased risk of cardiometabolic disease

There is a robust observational relationship between lower birthweight and higher risk of cardiometabolic disease in later life. The  “Barker Hypothesis” posits that adverse environmental factors in utero decrease offspring birthweight and increase future risk of cardiometabolic disease.

Here were explore if maternal genetic variants associated with offspring birthweight are also associated with offspring cardiometabolic risk factors, after controlling for offspring genetics, in up to 26057 mother-offspring pairs from the Nord-Trøndelag Health (HUNT) Study.

We find little evidence for a maternal genetic effect of birthweight associated variants on offspring cardiometabolic risk factors after adjusting for offspring genetics. Instead, the correlation between low birthweight and later life cardiometabolic disease seems to be explained by the genetics of the child. This work potentially overturns the “Barker Hypothesis”, one of the most prominent theories in life course epidemiology to have emerged over the last thirty years.

Read the article:

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-020-19257-z

Gunn-Helen Moen

Photo: Unsplash