Insulin levels at 18-20 gestational weeks in pregnant women with obesity are associated with newborn abdominal fat deposition and DNA methylation in cord blood

We assessed if fasting plasma insulin levels in pregnant women with obesity are associated with newborns' abdominal fat deposition (dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry) and with cord blood DNA methylation (450k array) in 232 mother-child pairs from the Treatment of Obese Pregnant women (TOP) study. Fasting maternal insulin at 18-20gw was associated with abdominal/total fat mass ratio in newborns independent of multiple potential confounders (β = 0.23[95%CI: 0.01; 0.45], P = 0.041) and with cord blood DNA methylation at CpG sites annotated to C11orf54 and RARB (FDR < 10%), both genes potentially involved in metabolic programming. In conclusion, maternal insulin levels in pregnancy were associated with adiposity traits and epigenetics in the offspring.