Smoking in pregnancy raises infant’s obesity risk

Children whose mothers smokedduring their pregnancy are at increased risk of being obese later in life, say researchers.

The findings, published in the journal Experimental Physiology, showed that chemerin, a protein that is produced by fat cells and appears to play a role in energy storage, was more prevalent in the skin and isolated cells of infants whose mothers smoked during pregnancy.

Previous research had shown that chemerin is present in higher levels in the blood of obese people.

The new results suggest that smoking in pregnancy could lead to changes in the regulation of the genes that play an important role in fat cell development and, by extension, obesity.