Maternal obesity increases the risk for obesity and metabolic perturbations in their offspring, but what are the mechanisms? In a new study published March 12 in the open-access journal PLOS Biology, Sebastien Bouret of the French National Institute of Health and Medical Research (INSERM) in Lille, France, and colleagues show that a key step in the process is the triggering of stress in a complex membrane system within all cells called the endoplasmic reticulum (ER). That stress leads to critical changes in the development of the hypothalamus, a part of the brain that controls hunger, satiety, and metabolic rate.
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