Abstract #0353

Maternal Obesity during Pregnancy is Associated with Lower Cortical Thickness in the Newborn Brain

Xiaoxu Na¹, Natalie E. Phelan¹, Marinna R. Tadros¹, Aline Andres^2,3, Thomas M. Badger^2,3, Charles M. Glasier¹, Raghu H. Ramakrishnaiah¹, Amy C. Rowell¹, Li Wang⁴, Gang Li⁴, Zhengwang Wu⁴, David K. Williams⁵, and Xiawei Ou^1,3,6

¹Radiology, University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences, Little Rock, AR, United States, ²Pediatrics, University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences, Little Rock, AR, United States, ³Arkansas Children's Nutrition Center, Little Rock, AR, United States, ⁴Radiology, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, NC, United States, ⁵Biostatistics, University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences, Little Rock, AR, United States, ⁶Arkansas Children's Research Institute, Little Rock, AR, United States

This study examined the relationships between maternal obesity during pregnancy and newborn’s brain cortical development. Healthy normal weight or obese pregnant women were recruited at early pregnancy and their newborns underwent a brain MRI examination at 2 weeks of age. Structural MR images of the brain were post-processed to reconstruct cortical surfaces, and mean cortical thickness in different brain regions was measured. Significant differences in cortical thickness between infants born to normal weight vs. obese mothers were found in multiple brain regions, and negative correlations between maternal body fat mass percentage and infant cortical thickness were also observed.

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