Pregnancy is a critical time for the effects of environmental factors on children's development. The effect of added sugar intake on fetal development and pregnancy outcomes remains understudied despite increasing dietary intake in the United States. This study investigated the effect of added sugar on fetal programming by examining the association between maternal added sugar consumption, fetal movement, birth outcomes, and placental DNA methylation. Further, primary human fibroblasts were cultured under normal or high glucose conditions to assess the effect of high glucose exposure on cells' DNA methylation. We found that higher added sugar intake across pregnancy was associated with reduced 3rd-trimester fetal movement (p < .05) and shorter gestation (p < .01). Our sample size was not powered to detect the alteration of individual placental CpG with genome-wide significance. However, a secondary analysis suggested that added sugar consumption was associated with differential methylation of functionally related gene families across pregnancy. Consistent with this, high glucose exposure in primary cultured human fibroblasts altered the methylation of 17% of all CpGs, providing converging evidence for an effect of sugar on DNA methylation. Our results suggest that diets high in added sugar during pregnancy may have implications for offspring health via prenatal programming effects measurable before birth.

中文翻译：

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怀孕期间增加的糖摄入量：胎儿行为、出生结果和胎盘 DNA 甲基化

孕期是环境因素对儿童发育影响的关键时期。尽管美国的饮食摄入量增加，但添加糖摄入量对胎儿发育和妊娠结局的影响仍未得到充分研究。本研究通过检查母体添加糖消耗、胎儿运动、出生结果和胎盘 DNA 甲基化之间的关联，调查了添加糖对胎儿程序的影响。此外，在正常或高葡萄糖条件下培养原代人成纤维细胞以评估高葡萄糖暴露对细胞 DNA 甲基化的影响。我们发现，整个孕期增加的糖摄入量增加与第三孕期胎动减少（p  < .05）和妊娠期缩短（p < .01)。我们的样本量无法检测具有全基因组意义的单个胎盘 CpG 的变化。然而，二次分析表明，增加的糖消耗与怀孕期间功能相关基因家族的差异甲基化有关。与此一致，原代培养的人成纤维细胞中的高葡萄糖暴露改变了 17% 的所有 CpG 的甲基化，为糖对 DNA 甲基化的影响提供了一致的证据。我们的研究结果表明，怀孕期间添加高糖的饮食可能通过在出生前可测量的产前编程效应对后代健康产生影响。