About This Project

Gestational diabetes is increasing in the world population and the evidences shows that this pathology has negative impact on foetus development. Epidemiologic data shows that gestational diabetes is associated with cardiovascular diseases in adulthood which correlate with alterations in some genes and proteins of placenta. My proposal is to determine if education about physical activity can be a therapeutic tool to avoid the consequences of gestational diabetes in placenta and foetal outcomes.

Ask the Scientists

What is the context of this research?

Changes in nutritional status and sedentary lifestyle, especially in pregnancy, increase the probability of gestational diabetes (GD) in women. Obesity and sedentary lifestyle will increase the percentage of GD to over 10-15% of pregnancies in the next decade. This has important repercussions in the future health of newborn and mothers, leading to higher probability of chronic diseases.

Results from our lab and others, shows that GD induces alterations in expression of relevant genes and proteins for placental vascular and antioxidant regulation. But the detection of these changes at the end of gestation is too late to avoid the consequences of GD in newborns. For these reasons, is necessary to develop inexpensive strategies to avoid the placental alteration and improve foetus health.

What is the significance of this project?

With a inexpensive strategy, based in education using secure and dependable information, is possible to have a significant impact in the development of placenta to maintain the better environment for pregnancy and foetus development.The foetal life is the more important period for human development, so every alterations in the development of placental will affect the life of foetus.

Although it is well-known that physical activity has positive effects on health, many people still believe that activity should be reduced in pregnancy. For this reason, this project is focused in an educational strategy to determine the benefits for placenta development and foetus health. Whit these results, we will be able to spread this strategy as a secure and inexpensive tool for pregnant women.

What are the goals of the project?

First, we will design and produce educational materials for talks about the benefits of physical activity during pregnancy, with recommendations for secure exercise though pregnancy. Then, we will present these materials to a pilot group of mothers to determine if are neccesary some changes based in her experiences. With materials and team trained, we recruit a group of pregnant women with GD in a health care center. After the delivery, we will obtain the placenta to determine if the educational intervention have impact in the profile of molecular markers of placental physiology, compare with other group of GD pregnant without our educational intervention. Finally, we will do a survey to mothers for determine the variables that affected their exercise practice.