The results were presented at the Summer Research Conference held by the Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology, in Nova Scotia (Canada)

As part of her PhD project, Alejandra Rojas is investigating the associations between prenatal 1C metabolism and mid-childhood metabolic profile and health from the Reus-Tarragona Birth Cohort Study (RTBC). The RTBC is led by Michelle Murphy from the Area of Preventative Medicine and Public Health of the URV. Alejandra’s presentation was based on the study of how prenatal maternal cobalamin is associated with children insulin resistance. The hypothesis comes from previous studies from India that found that high insulin resistance was observed in children born to mothers with low cobalamin status. Children born to mothers with low vitamin B12 concentrations but high folate concentrations were the most insulin resistant.

For this purpose, mothers were recruited before 12 gestational weeks and extensive lifestyle and clinical data as well as fasting blood samples were collected. Furthermore 212 children participated at follow up aged 7.5 years. The preliminary evidence to date suggests that low B12 maternal status in the 1st trimester and gestational diabetes were associated with insulin resistance in the children.

Alejandra Rojas is part of the Martí i Franquès COFUND Fellowship Programme which is jointly funded by the European Union. The primary aim of Alejandra’s PhD project is to investigate the contribution of maternal and paternal gene-nutrient interactions to the in utero programming of health and development in the offspring.