Physical activity during pregnancy enhances the metabolic health of offspring, but new research in rats indicates that prenatal stress reduces these benefits, at least in male offspring. The findings have been published FASEB Journal.
The study also found that maternal stress may have this effect by altering signaling pathways involving corticosteroids-hormone that regulate energy balance and other physiological processes in brown adipose tissue in the offspring. This type of beneficial fat burns energy to produce heat, unlike white fat, which stores it.
Research identifies a stress-exercise interaction that may influence metabolic programming of offspring through tissue-specific regulation of corticosteroid pathways.
“This work provides a framework for understanding how psychosocial factors may modify exercise-based interventions during pregnancy and highlights the importance of considering maternal stress context in studies of developmental metabolic programming.“The authors wrote.
Source:
Journal Reference:
Yang, FT, And others. (2026). Specific effects of maternal stress and exercise on offspring metabolic health. FASEB Journal. doi:10.1096/fj.202600159r. https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1096/fj.202600159R
