The placenta, a temporary organ that supports a baby’s development during pregnancy, is crucial to fetal growth and development, supplying nutrients and oxygen, removing waste, and producing signaling factors. Exposures during pregnancy, like Mom’s environment and her physiology, can affect placental health, which in turn could have consequences for her baby’s health.
A team of investigators, including the ACNC’s Dr. Aline Andres, focused on something called “placental gestational age acceleration” (GAA), an estimate of how well the placenta functioned during pregnancy. Estimating GAA required cord blood samples collected from research study participants at birth to be measured for placental DNA markers.
Placental tissue collected shortly after birth from 152 mothers and their babies was examined for chemical markers in the DNA (DNA methylation) to calculate GAA. Babies returned for 11 follow-up visits until they were two years old and investigators measured their weight, height, fat mass, and lean muscle mass during that period.
Babies with placentas showing higher GAA tended to gain weight and fat mass more slowly in their first two years; they also had less fat mass on average over time. However, there was no difference in height or muscle growth based on placental GAA. This suggests that while placentas with higher GAA were linked to slower weight and fat gain, they did not seem to affect overall height or muscle mass.
These findings may reflect how the placenta adapts to stress during pregnancy, potentially influencing how nutrients are delivered to the baby and affecting growth patterns. Findings also highlight the need for better understanding of how maternal exposures and placental function influence a child’s health later in life.
Check out the manuscript: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/40796795/