The influence of the mother's nutrition in the fetal growth and its premature risk
Understanding why and how maternal obesity leads to health complications for the mother, fœtus and child.
Project leaders
Dr Marie Aline Charles, INSERM Research Director, Head of the "Epidemiology of obesity, diabetes and renal diseases over the lifecourse" group, INSERM Unit 1018 – Université ParisSud 11, Center for Research in Epidemiology and Population Health (Centre de recherche en Epidémiologie et Santé des Populations; CESP).
Barbara Heude, INSERM Research Fellow.
Anne Forhan, INSERM Study Engineer.
Context
The past few decades have been characterised by rapid changes in the nutritional state of the population in many countries. In France, obesity rates among adults rose from 8.5% to 14.5% between 1996 and 2009, and an increasing number of young women are already overweight when they become pregnant. Our group has shown that even in normal-weight women, the average weight gain during pregnancy has increased considerably. To avoid obstetric complications linked to maternalexcess weight and obesity, nutritional management of women who are or who want to become pregnant seems like the obvious solution. Yet many questions remain regarding the best time to intervene, the modalities of this intervention, and the variability of responses in different individuals. A better understanding of the relationships between maternal diet and fetal and postnatal growth in both overweight and normal weight women can help define the optimal strategies.
Objectives
Use existing data from an observational epidemiological study to:
- Examine how variations in maternal weight and maternal diet before and during pregnancy affect placental development, fetal growth and the risk of prematurity.
- Understand the variability of the effect of diet by studying candidate genes.
- Investigate how maternal diet in late pregnancy affects the composition of the colostrum.
Added value of PremUp Foundation
The research teams of the PremUp Foundation are all internationally recognised. The different fields of expertise necessary to carry out this project are all represented within the foundation: epidemiology, obstetrics, placental development, fetal growth.
Projected budget
| Budget over 3 years * | Year 1 | Year 2 | Year 3 | TOTAL |
| Postdoctoral researcher | 40 000 | 40 000 | 40 000 | 120 000 |
| Nutritional assays | 50 000 | 50 000 | ||
| Nutri-genetic tests | 150 000 | 150 000 | ||
| Administration costs of the project (5 % of the total amount) |
9 500 | 4 500 | 2 000 | 16 000 |
| 199 500 | 94 500 | 42 000 | 336 000 |
* in euros
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