Developmental Adipokines and Maternal Obesity Interactions

Adipokines are involved in the developmental programming during fetal development and early life, and might contribute to pregnancy complications. Maternal obesity has an impact on intrauterine fetal life that extends to abnormal changes in the adipose tissue and metabolic disorders in the newborns and even adulthood. This overview discusses the potential importance of adipokines during gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM) and in fetal metabolic programming. Various adipokines secreted from fat tissue as the key players in reprogramming maternal physiology to achieve an insulin-resistant state during pregnancy, especially when complicated by GDM. Indeed, this review hypothesized that the disturbance in adipokines may be associated with GDM in pregnant obese women or animals. This may influence, generally, on the health of the embryos, newborns and adulthood depending on proinflammatory markers. Finally, the obesity of mothers and disturbance in adipokines prior to pregnancy are a significant risk factor for the disturbed development of the pregnancy and the child, and develop metabolic syndrome. However, there are obvious species differences between pregnant women and animal models. Thus, maintaining normoglycaemia and adipokines levels during pregnancy may play an important role in a healthy life for the newborns.