A major project is being launched by a UK medical school to see if a vitamin supplement can help prevent a kind of diabetes that occurs during pregnancy.
Known as gestational diabetes, the condition means that women and their babies face a high risk of developing full-blown diabetes.
The researchers at Warwick Medical School are working with a hospital in India on the project together with Southampton University.
They plan to involve some 4,500 women offering vitamin B12 as a supplement.
The project will also involve women living close to the medical school in Coventry and Warwickshire – and the researchers plan to recruit equal numbers of women of European and south Asian background.
Women of Indian origin face an especially high risk of developing gestational diabetes.
Researcher Dr Ponnusamy Saravanan said: "This research will study pregnant women and follow the growth and development of their babies. The current research is funded until childbirth and we hope to closely follow up both mothers and baby beyond.
“Our earlier research in India shows that mothers with low Vitamin B12 levels gave birth to babies with features suggestive of them developing diabetes and cardiovascular diseases soon after birth and at 6 years."
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