Original research articleEffect of maternal weight during pregnancy on offspring muscle strength response to resistance training in late adulthood
Introduction
The Developmental Origins of Health and Disease (DOHaD) hypothesis proposes that environmental exposures during sensitive periods of development can result in phenotypic alterations affecting later health and disease susceptibility [1]. The prenatal period is associated with rapid cell division and is one of the most sensitive time periods in relation to developmental programming. In fact, recent evidence suggests that maternal adiposity during pregnancy can hamper offspring’s skeletal muscle development [2] and increase the long-term risk for obesity, cardiovascular disease, type 2 diabetes [[3], [4], [5]].
Key stages of skeletal muscle development occur during early embryonic stage, mid pregnancy, and postnatally [[6], [7], [8]]. Especially, the mid gestational period can have long-term consequences to offspring muscle strength and function [9]. During this period, the maternal obesity-induced inflammation can drive the differentiation of mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) into adipocytes rather than myocytes [10]. Maternal obesogenic environment can also increase intramyocellural fat accumulation in offspring, decrease skeletal muscle cross-sectional area [11], and muscle strength [12]. Although the exact mechanisms that explain the effect of maternal obesity and/or obesogenic environment on offspring muscle strength are unknown, the maternal obesity-induced inflammation could play a role. According to previous evidence, maternal obesity can decrease myogenesis by up-regulating inflammatory IKK/NF-B signaling pathway and subsequently inhibiting Wnt/β-catenin signaling pathway [13]. β-catenin can have a critical role in the growth of adult’s skeletal muscles after mechanical overload [14,15].
Interestingly, in human studies, maternal obesity has also been associated with increased concentration of inflammatory markers, e.g. interleukin-6 and C-reactive protein, in the cord blood [16]. Furthermore, in some human studies, but not in all [4], exposure to maternal adiposity has been associated with decreased fat free mass and increased fat mass in offspring [17,18]. This can lead into accumulation of intramuscular fat, which has been associated with decreased walking speed and grip strength in the elderly subjects [19]. Due to the link between the maternal obesity, inflammation and β-catenin, we hypothesized that elderly frail women offspring of overweight or obese mothers (OOM) can have compromised muscle strength response to resistance training compared to elderly frail women offspring of lean/normal weight mothers (OLM). Therefore, the purpose of this study was to compare the muscle strength changes between elderly frail women OLM and OOM after a 4-month supervised resistance training.
Section snippets
Participants
Thirty-five elderly frail women (age 72.3 ± 3.2 years) from the clinical Helsinki Birth Cohort Study (HBCS) (n = 2003) were recruited for this study. Only women were recruited as the main aim of this study project was to investigate the association between risk factors of type 2 diabetes (e.g. insulin resistance) and the ageing process specifically in frail women. Recruited women were either offspring of mothers who belonged to the lowest body mass index (BMI) quartile (BMI ≤ 26.3 kg/m2,
Baseline characteristics
Baseline characteristics are shown in Table 1. There were no statistically significant differences in anthropometrics, physical capacity or performance between the OLM or OOM. As expected maternal BMI was significantly higher in the OOM group than in the OLM group.
Adherence to training and LTPA
There were no statistically significant differences between the groups in adherence to supervised resistance training program (Table 2). Subjects participated on average in 78.6% of all training sessions. We found no statistically
Discussion
We hypothesized that OOM would respond differently to 4-months of resistance training. However, the findings from the study do not support this hypothesis. It was actually discovered that muscle strength gains during the intervention were similar in the OLM and the OOM groups. In both groups, a clear increase in muscle strength was detected. Albeit, in the OOM group the average muscle strength values seemed to be lower, but they were non-significant, except for leg curl. In leg curl we detected
Conclusion
Maternal overweight/obesity had no influence on the offspring muscle strength adaptability to resistance training intervention. Based on the present findings, elderly frail women offspring of either lean/normal weight mothers or overweight/obese mothers had similar strength gain during the 4-month supervised resistance training intervention. These data provide additional support that elderly frail women offspring of overweight/obese women may have lower muscle strength, but it may be muscle
Author contribution
Study Design: Minna K Salonen, Samuel Sandboge, Johan Eriksson,
Data Collection: Liisa Penttinen, Mika Simonen
Statistical Analysis: Niko S Wasenius
Data Interpretation: Niko S Wasenius, Mika Simonen, Minna Salonen, Johan Eriksson
Manuscript Preparation: Niko Wasenius, Mika Simonen, Minna Salonen, Liisa Penttinen, Samuel Sandboge, Johan Eriksson
Literature Search: Niko Wasenius, Mika Simonen, Minna Salonen, Liisa Penttinen
Funds Collection: Johan G Eriksson, Minna K Salonen
Financial disclosure
HBCS has been supported by grants from Finska Läkaresällskapet, the Finnish Special Governmental Subsidy for Health Sciences, Academy of Finland, Samfundet Folkhälsan, Liv och Hälsa, the Signe and Ane Gyllenberg Foundation, and EU FP7 (DORIAN) project number 278603. EU H2020-PHC-2014-DynaHealth Grant no. 633595. The funding source had no role in study design, collection or interpretation of the data, analysis, or publishing of the study.
Conflict of interests
The authors declare no conflict of interests
Acknowledgements
The authors would like to thank physiotherapist Minna Lipasti for her excellent assistance with research.
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