“Why Moms and Dads Should Exercise:
Molecular Discoveries of the Beneficial Effects of Parental Exercise on Offspring Health”

By Laurie Goodyear, Ph.D.
Professor of Medicine and Section Head, Joslin Diabetes Center
Harvard Medical School

Friday, October 18, at 2:30pm
Brehm Tower, Oliphant-Marshall Auditorium (1st floor)
1000 Wall St., Ann Arbor, MI 48109
Reception to follow

VENUE: Brehm Tower (home of Kellogg Eye Center) is located on the Medical Campus at 1000 Wall St., approximately one mile from Observatory Lodge. Oliphant-Marshall Auditorium is located on the first floor.

ABSTRACT: The World Health Organization estimates that 346 million people worldwide have diabetes, and without intervention, this number could double by 2050. In recent years, it has been established that risk patterns for both obesity and type 2 diabetes can originate as a consequence of alterations in growth and metabolism during critical windows of prenatal development. This is concerning because the ongoing increases in obesity, prediabetes, and diabetes in mothers of reproductive age may initiate a vicious cycle of risk and disease to subsequent generations. Recently, we used mouse models to show that maternal exercise improves the metabolic health of offspring as they age, including marked improvements in glucose tolerance, insulin sensitivity, body weight and body composition. This talk will reveal mechanisms by which maternal exercise transmits these beneficial effects to offspring metabolism, including the discovery of an exercise-induced novel placental-derived factor that functions via epigenetic changes in liver. These findings could have significant clinical implications, leading to novel treatments aimed at preventing transmission of diabetes risk to offspring.