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The Effects of Diet on Maternal Obesity and Infant Health

A special issue of Nutrients (ISSN 2072-6643). This special issue belongs to the section "Pediatric Nutrition".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 20 May 2026 | Viewed by 616

Special Issue Editors


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Guest Editor
Department of Obstetrics and Perinatology, Medical University of Lublin, 20-954 Lublin, Poland
Interests: maternal and fetal medicine; obesity; metabolic syndrome; adipokines; maternal nutrition; hypertension; preeclampsia; ultrasound in obstetrics; perinatal outcome
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Department of Obstetrics and Perinatology, Medical University of Lublin, 20-954 Lublin, Poland
Interests: pregnancy complications; gestational diabetes mellitus; adipokines; adiponectin; chemerin; lipocalin; apelin
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

We are pleased to present this Special Issue titled "The Effects of Diet on Maternal Obesity and Infant Health". It aims to present high-quality scientific articles (original research articles or comprehensive/systematic review papers) that highlight the latest achievements and research directions in research on the impact of diet on obesity-related complications in the mother and the fetus/newborn.

Pregnancy is a unique period in which attention is focused simultaneously on two people, the mother and the developing baby. The health of the pregnant mother is a vital condition for the proper development of the fetus and affects the future child's health.

Inappropriate diet directly influences the course of pregnancy and significantly increases the incidence of complications, mainly in patients with obesity. Precise nutritional strategies, including macronutrient balance, adequate micronutrient intake, and nutritional regimens, are essential both in obesity prevention and in the management of this group of patients.

In hope of creating a multidisciplinary platform for scientific exchange, we invite all researchers interested in maternal and neonatal health to share their research results and clinical experience.

Dr. Radzisław Mierzyński
Dr. Elżbieta Poniedziałek-Czajkowska
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

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Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2900 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • diet
  • obesity
  • pregnancy
  • fetus
  • newborn
  • gestational diabetes mellitus
  • metabolic syndrome

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Published Papers (1 paper)

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Review

21 pages, 343 KB  
Review
Obesity and Its Role in Fetal Programming—A Narrative Review
by Radzisław Mierzyński, Elżbieta Poniedziałek-Czajkowska, Kamila Świda and Katarzyna Mierzyńska
Nutrients 2025, 17(23), 3704; https://doi.org/10.3390/nu17233704 - 26 Nov 2025
Viewed by 513
Abstract
The prevalence of maternal obesity is rapidly increasing, which represents a major public health concern worldwide. Currently more than 50% of all adult women are overweight or obese, and this trend is reflected in women of child-bearing age. Maternal obesity is characterized by [...] Read more.
The prevalence of maternal obesity is rapidly increasing, which represents a major public health concern worldwide. Currently more than 50% of all adult women are overweight or obese, and this trend is reflected in women of child-bearing age. Maternal obesity is characterized by metabolic dysfunction and chronic inflammation, and is associated with health problems in both the mother and the offspring. Intrauterine programming occurs during embryonic and fetal development, a critical period not only for the formation of tissues and organs but also for the etiology of diseases later in life. The principal mechanisms underlying fetal programming in the offspring of obese mothers appear to involve DNA methylation and chromatin remodeling within progenitor cells. Aberrant DNA methylation patterns have been identified in genes involved in insulin signaling, lipid metabolism, and appetite regulation in the placenta and fetal tissues. Histone modifications, such as acetylation and methylation of histone tails, may also play a crucial role in modulating chromatin structure and accessibility of transcriptional machinery to DNA. The persistence of such modifications throughout life, and potentially across generations, can lead to permanent alterations in gene expression, thereby contributing to the intergenerational transmission of metabolic disorders. The aim of this paper is to present an overview of the current knowledge regarding the effects of maternal obesity on fetal development and the occurrence of fetal complications, as well as long-term complications observed in adulthood related to intrauterine exposure to maternal obesity, including hypertension and cardiovascular diseases, impaired insulin secretion and resistance, diabetes mellitus, and metabolic syndrome. The mechanisms underlying fetal programming are also discussed. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue The Effects of Diet on Maternal Obesity and Infant Health)
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