MSU Receives $3 Million NIH Grant to Investigate Connections Between Maternal BMI and Childhood Obesity

While maternal body mass index (BMI) is a known predictor of a child's BMI, science has not yet identified the specific mechanisms behind this relationship. Using a new $3 million grant from the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases, part of the National Institutes of Health, researchers at Michigan State University and Henry Ford Health  aim to uncover the associations between maternal BMI and childhood obesity.
The study, titled &ldquo;A Pre-, Peri-, and Post-natal Approach to Understanding the Risk and Mechanisms for Obesity," will enroll 600 child and mother pairings to explore the biochemical pathways that could contribute to the development of childhood obesity. Researchers will analyze data such as blood glucose, blood pressure, metabolic state, antimicrobial exposures and gut bacterial communities in mothers with normal, overweight and obese BMIs, with the aim of identifying which biological mechanisms increase a child's risk of developing obesity, and finding interventions that could halt that trajectory in infancy.