The Placenta Can Provide Information About Future Diseases in Adults and Children

Researchers at the Anschutz Medical Campus at the University of Colorado have discovered a direct link between placental function in pregnant women and subsequent metabolic disorders in children and adults. This finding could lead to earlier intervention and diagnosis of diseases.

Link Between Placental Signals and Metabolic Diseases

The placenta performs a number of important tasks. The fetus receives all of its nutrition from the mother. The placenta supplies the baby with important vitamins and minerals and is the fetus’s only source of oxygen. It also filters waste products out of the fetus and produces important hormones such as hCG, estrogen, and progesterone, which are essential for maintaining pregnancy.

“We have known for some time that many serious diseases in adults, such as diabetes and cardiovascular disease, are at least partly attributable to problems during pregnancy,” said the study’s lead author, Dr. Thomas Jansson, professor of obstetrics and gynecology at the University of Colorado School of Medicine. “For example, it has been shown that 50% of all type 2 diabetes cases in young adults are caused by the intrauterine environment in pregnant women with obesity and/or gestational diabetes.”

In this study, published in the journal Diabetes, Jansson and lead author Madeline Rose Keleher, PhD, from the LEAD Center (Lifecourse, Epidemiology of Adiposity & Diabetes) at the Colorado School of Public Health, gained further insights into the role of the placenta in a child’s future health. “We are the first to discover links between placental function and blood pressure, body fat percentage, and triglyceride levels in children aged 4 to 6,” said Jansson. These markers often indicate an increased risk of heart disease, diabetes, and obesity later in life.

The researchers used the longitudinal prevention cohort study “Healthy Start,” which involved 1,410 healthy pregnant women between 2010 and 2014. What makes this study unique is its time frame. The researchers did not limit themselves to newborns, but followed the children for one year and then for four to six years. A healthy intrauterine environment is largely determined by the placenta, which nourishes the fetus and protects it from the mother’s immune system. According to the researchers, changes in the placenta, such as inflammation or insulin signals, can form the basis for later diseases. The study found that the IGF-1 receptor protein in the placenta is associated with serum triglycerides in children, which can later lead to obesity or diabetes. Other proteins in the placenta were found to be associated with increased fat tissue in the arms and thighs of children. All of this revealed a new link between placental function and long-term metabolic outcomes.

Personalized Medicine

According to Jansson, doctors may be able to intervene if they detect that the placenta is not functioning properly during pregnancy. “If we know that the placenta is damaged or altered during pregnancy, we can take steps to modulate its function and reduce the risk to the fetus,” he said. “Treating pregnant women is always difficult, but the placenta is accessible, while the fetus is largely inaccessible.” The findings could ultimately lead to a form of personalized medicine that begins before birth and provide a better understanding of the mechanisms linking placental function to the risk of metabolic diseases in childhood and adulthood. This could open up innovative ways to prevent these diseases in future generations. In the