• Aylin Rosberg, Harri Merisaari, John D Lewis, Niloofar Hashempour, Minna Lukkarinen, Jerod M Rasmussen, Noora M Scheinin, Linnea Karlsson, Hasse Karlsson, and Jetro J Tuulari.
• FinnBrain Birth Cohort Study, Turku Brain and Mind Centre, Department of Clinical Medicine, University of Turku, Turku, Finland. ayrosb@utu.fi.
• Bmc Med. 2024 Mar 25; 22 (1): 140140.

BackgroundIt is well-established that parental obesity is a strong risk factor for offspring obesity. Further, a converging body of evidence now suggests that maternal weight profiles may affect the developing offspring's brain in a manner that confers future obesity risk. Here, we investigated how pre-pregnancy maternal weight status influences the reward-related striatal areas of the offspring's brain during in utero development.MethodsWe used diffusion tensor imaging to quantify the microstructure of the striatal brain regions of interest in neonates (N = 116 [66 males, 50 females], mean gestational weeks at birth [39.88], SD = 1.14; at scan [43.56], SD = 1.05). Linear regression was used to test the associations between maternal pre-pregnancy body mass index (BMI) and infant striatal mean diffusivity.ResultsHigh maternal pre-pregnancy BMI was associated with higher mean MD values in the infant's left caudate nucleus. Results remained unchanged after the adjustment for covariates.ConclusionsIn utero exposure to maternal adiposity might have a growth-impairing impact on the mean diffusivity of the infant's left caudate nucleus. Considering the involvement of the caudate nucleus in regulating eating behavior and food-related reward processing later in life, this finding calls for further investigations to define the prognostic relevance of early-life caudate nucleus development and weight trajectories of the offspring.© 2024. The Author(s).

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