doi:10.1155/2012/538474 Review Article Impact of Maternal Diabetes on Epigenetic Modifications Leading

Copyright © 2012 Nikolaos Vrachnis et al. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. Gestational diabetes, occurring during the hyperglycemic period of pregnancy in maternal life, is a pathologic state that increases the incidence of complications in both mother and fetus. Offspring thus exposed to an adverse fetal and early postnatal environment may manifest increased susceptibility to a number of chronic diseases later in life. Compelling evidence for the role of epigenetic transmission in these complications has come from comparison of siblings born before and after the development of maternal diabetes, exposure to this intrauterine diabetic environment being shown to cause alterations in fetal growth patterns which predispose these infants to developing overweight and obesity later in life. Diabetes of the offspring is also mainly the consequence of exposure to the diabetic intrauterine environment, in addition to genetic susceptibility. Since obesity and diabetes are known to increase the risk of cardiovascular disease, cardiovascular sequelae in the offspring of diabetic mothers are virtuall