Pregnant women who eat a diet deficient in vitamin B12 – found largely in dairy products – may increase the risk of their children developing type 2 diabetes, a conference will be told today.
The findings are the preliminary results of laboratory-based research at Warwick University Medical School, UK.
The laboratory studies found high levels of the hunger hormone leptin in babies born to mothers with vitamin B12 deficiency.
The researchers say these women also tend to be overweight, another factor that might increase leptin levels. They are reporting their findings to the conference of the Society for Endocrinology in Brighton, UK.
Vitamin B12 is found in foods such as fish, meat, poultry, eggs and milk.
For the study, the researchers took a range of tissue samples from mothers and babies at the time of birth. They found that low levels of maternal B12 was linked to high leptin levels in cord blood, placental tissue and maternal fat.
Researcher Dr Ponusammy Saravanan said: "We know that children born to under or over nourished mothers are at an increased risk of health problems such as type-2 diabetes, and we also see that maternal B12 deficiency may affect fat metabolism and contribute to this risk. This is why we decided to investigate leptin, the fat cell hormone."
Fellow researcher Dr Adaikala Antonysunil said: "Either low B12 drives fat accumulation in the foetus, and this leads to increased leptin, or the low B12 actually causes chemical changes in the placental genes that produce leptin, making more of the hormone.
"As B12 is involved in methylation reactions in the body which can affect whether genes are turned on and off, we suspect it may be the latter."
Abstract: Low maternal B12 associates with higher leptin in maternal adipose tissue, placental tissue and cord blood
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