How exercise during pregnancy in people with obesity affects babies' stem cells
Official title: Effect of Maternal Exercise in Women with Obesity on Offspring Mesenchymal Stem Cell Metabolism
Funded at East Carolina University · NIH-11252791 · Data updated 2026-11-12
This project looks at whether aerobic or resistance exercise during pregnancy in people with obesity changes newborns' stem cells that are linked to body fat and metabolism.
Quick facts
| Grant type | R01 grant |
|---|---|
| Study type | NIH-funded research |
| Funding institution | East Carolina University NIH-funded |
| Lab location | 1 site (Greenville, United States) |
| Project start | February 9, 2024 |
| Project end | December 31, 2028 |
| Funding year | 2026 |
| Award (this year) | $552,661 |
| NIH project number | 5R01DK137945-03 |
| Project ID | NIH-11252791 on NIH RePORTER |
Who could benefit from this research
✓Could help
Ideal candidates are pregnant adults with obesity who enroll in the parent randomized trial comparing aerobic exercise, resistance exercise, or usual care.
✕Less likely to help
People who are not pregnant, who do not have obesity, or whose infants' umbilical cords are not collected will not be eligible and are unlikely to benefit directly from this study.
What this research studies
If you are pregnant and have obesity, the parent trial randomly assigns participants to aerobic exercise, resistance exercise, or usual care during pregnancy. Researchers will collect your infant's umbilical cord at birth and grow mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) from it to study cellular metabolism. The lab will turn those MSCs into fat and muscle cell types to see whether maternal exercise produces healthier cellular behavior. This ancillary study uses those cellular results to understand how prenatal exercise might protect babies from excess fat and metabolic problems.
Why it matters
Potential benefit: If successful, this work could help show that prenatal exercise reduces newborn body fat and improves long-term metabolic health for children born to people with obesity.
How similar studies have gone: Prior clinical work from this team shows maternal exercise can lower infant BMI and body fat, and early lab data suggest infant MSCs from exercising mothers have improved metabolism, though using MSCs to trace mechanisms in humans is still relatively new.
Where this research is happening
-
East Carolina University
Greenville, United States Active
Researchers
- Principal investigator: Broskey, Nicholas — East Carolina University
- Study coordinator: Broskey, Nicholas
Related research
Other NIH-funded projects on the same topics.
-
Understanding how knee pain and knee obesity and muscle loss affect knee osteoarthritis
This project looks at how knee swelling, excess knee fat, and muscle loss relate to pain and structural changes in knee osteoarthritis in adults.
-
Understanding how maternal and infant sleep and daily rhythms influence early appetite and obesity risk
This project explores how infant sleep, circadian rhythms, and maternal-infant timing relate to early appetite patterns and the risk of obesity in the first year of life.
-
GLP-1 receptor agonists as immune targets to treat asthma in lean and obese adults
Aims to understand how GLP-1R‑agonist diabetes medicines may directly calm immune cells to reduce asthma in adults who are lean or obese.
-
Understanding how where you live and personal factors during pregnancy affect a child’s risk for obesity and metabolic problems
This project looks at how neighborhood conditions and individual factors during pregnancy may influence a child’s risk of obesity and metabolic health as they grow.
-
Multicomponent lifestyle program to curb obesity and cardiometabolic risk in Samoan children
A locally designed lifestyle program aimed at preventing obesity and heart-disease risk in Samoan kids, with a focus on daily routines, healthy eating, sleep, and family support.
-
Game-based mobile app to help pregnant women with overweight/obesity manage weight in Nepal
A new app designed for pregnant women in Nepal with overweight or obesity to help manage weight gain during pregnancy and reduce weight retention after birth.
About this research
- This is an active NIH-funded research project — typically early-stage science, not a clinical trial accepting patient enrollment.
- Some NIH-funded labs run parallel clinical studies or seek volunteers for related work. To check, contact the principal investigator or institution listed above.
- For full project details, budget, and progress reports, visit the official NIH RePORTER page.