School of Medicine Publications
Document Type
Article
Publication Date
10-31-2026
Abstract
Pregnancy is a critical window for metabolic programming, during which adverse intrauterine exposures may influence long-term health. GDM alters the intrauterine environment, but its role in early metabolic programming remains poorly understood. Thus, the objective of this study was to identify the shared metabolomic signature in mother–newborn dyads and to assess whether GDM modifies this signature. For this purpose, we conducted a cross-sectional study including mother–newborn dyads recruited at the General Hospital of Mexico. Blood samples were collected from dyads. Amino acids and acylcarnitines were quantified by tandem mass spectrometry. Sparse partial least squares (sPLS) analysis was used to identify shared metabolomic signatures within mother–newborn dyads. Linear mixed-effects models evaluated the modifying effect of GDM on shared metabolites. A total of 112 mother–newborn dyads (68 without GDM and 44 with GDM) were included. Two shared metabolomic signatures were identified. The first, characterized by arginine, methionine, acetylcarnitine, and free carnitine, showed a strong maternal–newborn correlation. Although this core signature was preserved in both groups, valine and alanine contributed exclusively to the GDM-exposed dyads. In conclusion, a shared metabolomic signature related to fetal development and energy metabolism was conserved regardless of GDM status, although GDM partially modified this signature. These findings provide insights into metabolic processes potentially involved in early metabolic programming.
Recommended Citation
Omaña-Guzmán, I., López-Alvarenga, J. C., Palacios-González, B., Jaramillo-Pimentel, F., Lanz-Pérez, L., Alvarado-González, A., Díaz-Olivares, C., Carranco-Martínez, J. A., Vela-Amieva, M., Ibarra-González, I., & Garibay-Nieto, N. (2026). Identifying a Shared Metabolomic Signature in Mother–Newborn Dyads With and Without Gestational Diabetes: Implications for Early Metabolic Programming. International Journal of Molecular Sciences, 27(21), 9786. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijms27219786
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
Publication Title
International Journal of Molecular Sciences
DOI
10.3390/ijms27219786
Academic Level
faculty
Mentor/PI Department
Population Health and Biostatistics
Comments
© 2026 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license.