Maternal and postweaning WSD publicity are related to periportal fibrosis. Credit score: Liver Worldwide (2025). DOI: 10.1111/liv.16236
When moms eat a food plan excessive in fats and sugars, their unborn infants can develop liver stress that continues into adolescence. A brand new research printed within the journal Liver Worldwide sheds mild on adjustments to the fetus’s bile acid, which impacts how liver illness develops and progresses.
Bile acids sometimes assist with digestion and soak up dietary fat within the small gut, however after they attain extreme ranges, they change into poisonous and may injury the liver. Whereas the mom can detoxify the acids, the fetus lacks that capability. Bile acids could re-circulate to the mom for cleansing, but when they do not, they construct up within the fetal liver, setting the stage for future issues.
The findings counsel that early publicity to extra bile acids within the womb could also be one vital issue underlying the early growth of metabolic dysfunction-associated steatotic liver illness (MASLD), which impacts as much as 30% of youth.
“It’s a huge public health concern, as we know mothers with obesity or those eating a poor diet can predispose the next generation to a risk for obesity, diabetes and other metabolic diseases beginning in the womb, thus completing a vicious cycle from mother to infant,” mentioned Jed Friedman, Ph.D., affiliate vice provost for diabetes packages on the College of Oklahoma Well being Sciences and director of OU Well being Harold Hamm Diabetes Middle. Friedman was co-senior writer of the research with Stephanie Wesolowski, Ph.D., of the College of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus.
By the point the offspring studied have been juveniles, that they had liver injury, together with elevated quantities of a protein known as collagen, which is linked to fibrosis (a build-up of scar tissue), and activated liver cells concerned in fibrosis. The high-fat food plan additionally led to adjustments in how some liver genes labored, significantly these associated to bile acid processing. These adjustments persevered no matter what the offspring ate after being weaned.
As well as, offspring whose moms ate a high-fat food plan had extra bile duct cells (cells that drain bile from the liver), suggesting the liver was attempting to compensate for injury.
“This study provides evidence that MASLD originates in the womb, influenced at least in part by a mother’s high-fat diet,” Friedman mentioned. “The invention of elevated bile acid ranges in fetuses could present insights into the early phases of MASLD and its development earlier than it worsens.
“A mother’s diet during pregnancy plays a powerful role in shaping her baby’s future health. By making healthy food choices, moms can help lower their child’s risk of developing metabolic diseases like MASLD later in life.”
Extra data:
Michael J. Nash et al, Maternal Western Food regimen Programmes Bile Acid Dysregulation and Hepatic Fibrosis in Fetal and Juvenile Macaques, Liver Worldwide (2025). DOI: 10.1111/liv.16236
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Mom’s high-fat food plan may cause liver stress in fetus, research reveals (2025, March 13)
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