# The impact of gastric bypass on maternal and offspring metabolic health

> **NIH NIH R01** · OREGON HEALTH & SCIENCE UNIVERSITY · 2020 · $756,000

## Abstract

PROJECT SUMMARY
 Childhood obesity rates are at their highest recorded level of 17%, and an important emerging risk
factor is maternal obesity. It is hypothesized that maternal obesity during critical stages of in utero development
programs the risk for the development of obesity in the offspring, but the mechanism for this transmission
remains unclear. One of the most efficient and long-lasting therapies for obesity in reproductive-age women is
Roux-en-Y gastric bypass (RYGB) surgery, and recent results suggest that maternal RYGB may protect
offspring from the development of obesity. However, conflicting data also indicates maternal RYGB may result
in fetal malnutrition, which could have a lasting detrimental impact on offspring health. In the current proposal,
we will utilize our long-standing nonhuman primate model of maternal western-style diet (WSD) consumption in
conjunction with our newly developed model of nonhuman primate RYGB to determine how RYGB impacts
both maternal health and offspring development. Previous work from our laboratory has found that fetal
nonhuman primates exposed to a WSD in utero have a number of physiological changes, including alterations
in postnatal growth curves and insulin sensitivity along with alterations in the pancreas. These findings will be
the foundation to explore what, if any, beneficial impact maternal RYGB has to reverse these in utero WSD-
induced alterations in offspring physiology. One novel mechanism by which maternal RYGB may impact
offspring metabolic health is the microbiome. Our previous work has demonstrated that maternal diet and
microbiome composition may have a long-term influence on the offspring microbiome. RYGB causes drastic
changes to the patient's microbiome, which appear to promote weight-loss when transferred into germ-free
mice. To our knowledge, no previous study has investigated how maternal RYGB may impact offspring
microbiome and whether this alters metabolic physiology. The current research proposal hopes to address how
RYGB impact both maternal metabolic health during pregnancy as well as offspring fetal growth and postnatal
metabolic health with three specific aims:
Specific Aim 1. Characterize the effect of RYGB on maternal metabolic health during pregnancy.
Specific Aim 2. Determine the impact of maternal RYGB on offspring fetal growth and early postnatal
metabolic health.
Specific Aim 3. Assess the impact of RYGB on maternal and offspring microbiome.

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 9860127
- **Project number:** 1R01DK123115-01
- **Recipient organization:** OREGON HEALTH & SCIENCE UNIVERSITY
- **Principal Investigator:** Paul Kievit
- **Activity code:** R01 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2020
- **Award amount:** $756,000
- **Award type:** 1
- **Project period:** 2020-04-07 → 2024-01-31

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/9860127

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 9860127, The impact of gastric bypass on maternal and offspring metabolic health (1R01DK123115-01). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-23 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/9860127. Licensed CC0.

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