Peter Gluckman

University of Auckland · Liggins Institute

Summary Background Apolipoproteins as an integral part of lipoproteins are crucial for the transport and metabolism of lipids. However, there is a lack of longitudinal studies to quantify the concentrations of maternal apolipoproteins from preconception to postpartum and their associations with maternal metabolic health and offspring birth outcomes...

Background Adaptations in lipid metabolism are essential to meet the physiological demands of pregnancy and any aberration may result in adverse outcomes for both mother and offspring. However, there is a lack of population-level studies to define the longitudinal changes of maternal circulating lipids from preconception to postpartum in relation t...

Importance: screen-viewing in adults has been associated with greater abdominal adiposity, with the magnitude of associations varying by sex and ethnicity, but the evidence is lacking at younger ages. We aimed to investigate sex- and ethnic-specific associations of screen-viewing time at ages 2 and 3 years with abdominal adiposity measured by magne...

Lipids play a vital role in human health and development, but changes to their circulatory levels during gestation and in early life are poorly understood. Here we present the first developmental and intergenerational landscape of the human circulatory lipidome, derived by profiling of 480 lipid species representing 25 lipid classes, in mothers and...

Introduction: To determine if variations in the neonatal amygdala mediate the association between maternal antenatal glycemia and offspring adiposity in early childhood. Research design and methods: 123 non-obese pregnant women with no pregnancy complications aside from gestational diabetes underwent a 75 g 2-hour oral glucose tolerance test at...

Maternal childhood maltreatment and depression increase risks for the psychopathology of the offspring. This study employed a longitudinal dataset of mother–child dyads to investigate the developmental trajectories of brain functional networks and behaviors of children in relation with maternal childhood adverse experience and depression. Maternal...

Background: previous studies focusing on the association between gestational diabetes and breastfeeding duration have been inconclusive. Objectives: we aimed to determine whether maternal gestational hyperglycemia is associated with the duration of breastfeeding and the concentrations of markers linked to breastmilk production. Methods: data from...

The current global COVID-19 pandemic has led to a deep and multidimensional crisis across all sectors of society. As countries contemplate their mobility and social-distancing policy restrictions, we have a unique opportunity to re-imagine the deliberative frameworks and value priorities in our food systems. Pre-pandemic food systems at global, nat...

Canonical transforming growth factor-beta (TGF-β) signaling exerts neuroprotection and influences memory formation and synaptic plasticity. It has been considered as a new target for the prevention and treatment of depression. This study aimed to examine its modulatory role in linking prenatal maternal depressive symptoms and the amygdala volumes f...

We examined the associations of gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM) and women’s weight status from pre-pregnancy through post-delivery with the risk of developing dysglycaemia [impaired fasting glucose, impaired glucose tolerance, and type 2 diabetes (T2D)] 4–6 years post-delivery. Using Poisson regression with confounder adjustments, we assessed a...

PurposeCurrent literature on the roles of α-, β-carotene and β-cryptoxanthin in neurocognitive function has largely focused on preventing cognitive decline in older people, and less on neuro-development in children. We examined the relations of maternal plasma carotenoids concentrations with offspring cognitive development up to age 4.5 years in th...

While maternal mental health strongly influences neurodevelopment and health in the offspring, little is known about the determinants of inter-individual variation in the mental health of mothers. Likewise, the in utero biological pathways by which variation in maternal mental health affects offspring development remain to be defined. Previous stud...

Context: Cardiometabolic profiles of different body composition phenotypes are poorly characterized in young children, where it is well-established that high adiposity is unfavorable, but the role of lean mass is unclear. Objective: We hypothesized that higher lean mass attenuates cardiometabolic risk in children with high fat mass. Design, set...

Aims There is compelling evidence for gradient effects of household income on school readiness. Potential mechanisms are described, yet the growth curve trajectory of maternal mental health in a child's early life has not been thoroughly investigated. We aimed to examine the relationships between household incomes, maternal mental health trajectori...

Maternal glycaemia promotes fetal adiposity. Inositol, an insulin sensitizer, has been trialled for gestational diabetes prevention. The placenta has been implicated in how maternal hyperglycaemia generates fetal pathophysiology, but no studies have examined whether placental inositol biology is altered with maternal hyperglycaemia, nor whether suc...

The Singapore Preconception Study of Long-Term Maternal and Child Outcomes (S-PRESTO) is a preconception, longitudinal cohort study that aims to study the effects of nutrition, lifestyle, and maternal mood prior to and during pregnancy on the epigenome of the offspring and clinically important outcomes including duration of gestation, fetal growth,...

The phenomenon whereby an individual’s early life experiences modulate subsequent susceptibility to disease risk is known as the “developmental origins of health and disease” (DOHaD). This chapter focuses on obesity and associated metabolic disease, reviewing this research domain through the lens of an evolutionary developmental biology (evo-devo)...

The genetic mechanisms of childhood development in its many facets remain largely undeciphered. In the population of healthy infants studied in the Growing Up in Singapore Towards Healthy Outcomes (GUSTO) program, we have identified a range of dependencies among the observed phenotypes of fetal and early childhood growth, neurological development,...

The Singapore Preconception Study of Long-Term Maternal and Child Outcomes (S-PRESTO) is a preconception, longitudinal cohort study that aims to study the effects of nutrition, lifestyle, and maternal mood prior to and during pregnancy on the epigenome of the offspring and clinically important outcomes including duration of gestation, fetal growth,...

While the Anthropocene is often discussed in terms of the health of the planet, there has been less attention paid to its impact on the health of humans. We argue that there is now sufficient evidence of broad and growing adverse effects on human health to consider Anthropocene-related diseases and their impact on public health as a category of con...

The right to exercise choice is fundamental to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, and it is assumed that all individuals generally enjoy freedom of choice in managing their health. Yet closer examination of this assumption calls into question its credibility and validity, especially with regard to maternal and child health around the globe....

Background: Studies have identified lifestyle risk factors for perinatal depression, but none have examined the cumulative effect of these risk factors in pregnant women. Methods: We considered the following six factors during pregnancy: poor diet quality (Healthy eating index for Singapore pregnant women<median), poor sleep quality (global Pitt...

This paper critically discusses the use and merits of global indices, in particular, the Global Health Security Index or GHSI (Cameron et 2019). The index ranked 195 countries according to their expected preparedness in case of a pandemic or other biological threat. The Covid-19 pandemic provides the background to compare each country's predicted p...

Background: using longitudinal ultrasounds as an improved fetal growth marker, we aimed to investigate if fetal growth deceleration followed by rapid postnatal weight gain is associated with childhood cardiometabolic risk biomarkers in a contemporary well-nourished population. Methods: we defined fetal growth deceleration (FGD) as ultrasound-meas...

Background Maternal mental health problems often develop prenatally and predict post-partum mental health. However, the circumstances before and following childbirth differ considerably. We currently lack an understanding of dynamic variation in the profiles of depressive and anxiety symptoms over the perinatal period. Methods Depressive and anxie...

Inflammatory signaling has a role in sensing intrauterine environment, which may be moderators in altering fetal brain development upon maternal environment. This study integrated cytokine transcriptome of post-mortem fetal brains, neonatal brain imaging and genetic variants (n = 161) to examine whether cytokines are candidates for modulating the r...

Objective: To examine the association between plasma glycemia in women attempting to conceive and fecundability, as measured by time-to-pregnancy (TTP). Design: Prospective preconception population-based study. Setting: KK Women’s and Children’s Hospital, Singapore. Patient(s): Asian preconception women, aged 18-45 years, attempting conception f...

Background: Gestational diabetes is associated with unfavorable body fat distribution in offspring. However, less is known about the effects across the range of maternal gestational glycemia on offspring abdominal adiposity (AA) in infancy and early childhood. Objectives: This study determined the association between gestational glycemia and off...

In animal studies early life antibiotic exposure causes metabolic abnormalities including obesity through microbiota disruption, but evidence from human studies is scarce. We examined involvement of gut microbiota in the associations between infant antibiotic exposure and childhood adiposity. Infant antibiotic exposure in the first year of life was...

Introduction Pro-vitamin A carotenoids namely α-, β-carotene and β-cryptoxanthin have potential roles in neurocognitive development, but current literature on these carotenoids mainly focused on preventing cognitive decline in the elderly. This study examined the associations of maternal plasma pro-vitamin A carotenoids concentrations with offsprin...

The current global COVID-19 pandemic has led to a deep and multidimensional crisis across all sectors of society. As countries ease their mobility and social-distancing restrictions, we have a unique opportunity to re-imagine the deliberative frameworks and priorities in our global, national and regional food systems. Pre-pandemic food systems alre...

The human gut microbiota develops soon after birth and can acquire inter-individual variation upon exposure to intrinsic and environmental cues. However, inter-individual variation has not been comprehensively assessed in a multi-ethnic study. We studied a longitudinal birth cohort of 106 infants of three Asian ethnicities (Chinese, Malay, and Indi...

Background/objectives: Accumulation of lipid droplets inside skeletal muscle fibers (intramyocellular lipids or IMCL) with increasing obesity has been linked to skeletal muscle insulin resistance and risk of type 2 diabetes in both adults and prepubertal children. We aimed to evaluate the associations of race, genotype, prenatal factors, and postn...

Background: While there is increasing knowledge about the gut microbiome, the factors influencing and the significance of the gut resistome are still not well understood. Infant gut commensals risk transferring multidrug-resistant antibiotic resistance genes (ARGs) to pathogenic bacteria. The rapid spread of multidrug-resistant pathogenic bacteria...

Background in women without diabetes, little is known about the consequences of hyperglycaemia during pregnancy for the offspring cardiovascular structure and function. Objective To investigate the association of maternal glycaemia during pregnancy with cardiovascular risk markers in their children in GUSTO, a Singaporean birth cohort study. Meth...

Purpose To explore the associations between type of milk feeding (the “nutrients”) and mode of breast milk feeding (the “nursing”) with child cognition. Methods Healthy children from the GUSTO (Growing Up in Singapore Toward healthy Outcomes) cohort participated in repeated neurodevelopmental assessments between 6 and 54 months. For “nutrients”, w...

Background While there is increasing knowledge about the gut microbiome, the factors influencing and the significance of the gut resistome are still not well understood. Infant gut commensals risk transferring multidrug-resistant antibiotic resistance genes (ARGs) to pathogenic bacteria. The rapid spread of multidrug-resistant pathogenic bacteria i...

The prevalence of obesity has increased markedly over recent decades. Maternal obesity is associated with increased risk of pregnancy complications, including gestational diabetes. In addition, maternal obesity is recognized to be associated with increased birth weight, neonatal adiposity, increased risk of childhood obesity, diabetes, and metaboli...

Evolutionary medicine aims to understand the ultimate rather than proximate causation of health and disease. Multiple evolutionary pathways can lead to an increased risk of disease. Two evolutionary pathways are discussed in depth, firstly, to illustrate the value of an evolutionary perspective in understanding the physiology of pregnancy and fetal...

Maternal and child health are intrinsically linked. With accumulating evidence over the past two decades supporting the developmental origins of health and diseases hypothesis, it is now widely recognised that nutrition in the first 1000 d sets the foundation for long-term health. Maternal diet before, during and after pregnancy can influence the d...

Background: The rapid spread of multidrug- resistant pathogenic bacteria is a worldwide public health concern. Given the high carriage rate of extended spectrum beta-lactamase (ESBL)- producing Enterobacteriaceae in Asia, we aimed to evaluate community prevalence and dynamics by studying the longitudinal changes in antibiotic resistance gene (ARG)...

Background While there is increasing knowledge about the gut microbiome, the factors influencing and the significance of the gut resistome are still not well understood. Infant gut commensals risk transferring multidrug-resistant antibiotic resistance genes (ARGs) to pathogenic bacteria. The rapid spread of multidrug-resistant pathogenic bacteria i...

Consumption of sugar sweetened beverages (SSBs) in infants and young children are less explored in Asian populations. The Growing in Singapore Towards healthy Outcomes (GUSTO) cohort study examined associations between SSB intakes at ages 18 months and 5 years with adiposity measures at age 6 years. We studied Singaporean infants/children with SSB...

During development, cellular events such as cell proliferation, migration, and synaptogenesis determine the structural organization of the brain. These processes are driven in part by spatiotemporally regulated gene expression. We investigated how the genetic signatures of specific neural cell types shape cortical organization of the human brain th...

The development of allergic disease starts prenatally, a vital period during which maternal exposure such as nutrient intake may modulate fetal and infant immune programming [1]. However, the role of various nutrients intake during maternal pregnancy, for instance, carotenoids, vitamin A and vitamin E, in the development of allergic diseases in the...

Maternal care may predict limbic development, though relations may vary by age and type of assessment. Here, we examined maternal behavior during early infancy (i.e., six months postpartum) in relation to offspring hippocampal and amygdala volume and microstructure development between 4.5 (n = 99) and 6 (n = 111) years. In interaction with offsprin...

Significance Attachment disorganization is important to mental health, and is predicted by differences in caregiving. Still, not all children are equally influenced by such environmental factors. We examined whether differences in brain structures important to stress regulation influence the relation between maternal sensitive caregiving and levels...

Niche-constructing organisms actively modify their environments with adaptive consequences, sustaining a new equilibrium. Modern humans are instead niche modifiers, continually changing their environments irrespective of adaptive pressures. The nature, scale, and speed of such modifications have potential ill effects that need to be addressed with...

Maternal depression is associated with disrupted neurodevelopment in offspring. This study examined relationships among postnatal maternal depressive symptoms, the functional reward network and behavioral problems in 4.5-year-old boys (57) and girls (65). We employed canonical correlation analysis to evaluate whether the resting-state functional co...

Parents' feeding practices have been shown to be associated with children's food intake and weight status, but little is known about feeding practices in Asian countries. This study used behavioral observation to explore the feeding practices of 201 mothers of 4.5 year-old children in Singapore during an ad libitum buffet lunch. Feeding practices w...

Objectives: Screen-viewing in late childhood has been associated with adiposity and blood pressure (BP), but evidence is lacking at younger ages. To investigate the prospective associations of total and device-specific screen-viewing at age 2-3 years with BMI, sum of skinfold thicknesses and BP among Singaporean children at age 3-5 years. Methods...

Maternal care influences child hippocampal development. The hippocampus is functionally organized along an anterior–posterior axis. Little is known with regards to the extent maternal care shapes offspring anterior and posterior hippocampal (aHPC, pHPC) functional networks. This study examined maternal behavior, especially maternal sensitivity, at...

Background: The early life environment may influence susceptibility to obesity and metabolic disease in later life through epigenetic processes. SLC6A4 is an important mediator of serotonin bioavailability, and has a key role in energy balance. We tested the hypothesis that methylation of the SLC6A4 gene predicts adiposity across the life course....

The amygdala and hippocampus undergo the rapid development in early life. The relative contribution of genetic and environmental factors to the establishment of their developmental trajectories has yet to be examined. We performed imaging on neonates and examined how observed variation in the volume and microstructure of the amygdala and hippocampu...

Evidence on long term influences of maternal vitamin B12 deficiency or concentrations on infant cognition is limited. We examined associations between maternal plasma vitamin B12 and cognitive development in 24-months old infants. Maternal plasma vitamin B12 concentrations were measured at 26-28 weeks’ gestation; infant cognitive development assess...

A discrepancy between the phenotype of an individual and that which would confer optimal responses in terms of fitness in an environment is termed ‘mismatch’. Phenotype results from developmental plasticity, conditioned partly by evolutionary history of the species and partly by aspects of the developmental environment. We discuss two categories of...

Abstract Background Preterm birth (PTB), defined as child birth before completion of 37 weeks of gestation, is a major challenge in perinatal health care and can bear long-term medical and financial burden. Over a million children die each year due to PTB complications, and those who survive can face developmental delays. Unfortunately, our underst...

Objective: The aim of this study was to investigate the independent associations between age‐specific annual weight gain from birth to age 4 years and fat deposition in metabolically distinct compartments at age 4.5 years in a South Asian longitudinal birth cohort. Methods: Volumetric abdominal magnetic resonance imaging with comprehensive segment...

Background: Choline status has been positively associated with weight and fat mass in animal and human studies. As evidence examining maternal circulating choline concentrations and offspring body composition in human infants/children is lacking, we investigated this in two cohorts. Methods: Maternal choline concentrations were measured in the UK S...

The Growing Up in Singapore Towards Healthy Outcomes (GUSTO) cohort study was established in 2009 and recruited 1247 Chinese, Malay, and Indian families to precisely define the critical developmental pathways and mechanisms of the origins of obesity, metabolic disease, and neurodevelopmental disorders that have major public health and economic impo...

Background Converging evidence suggests that the lateral and medial orbitofrontal cortices (lOFC and mOFC) may contribute distinct neural mechanisms in depression. This study investigated the relations of their functional and structural organizations with postnatal maternal depressive symptoms in young children. Methods Resting‐state functional ma...

Background The prevalence of allergic diseases, such as asthma, allergic rhinitis, eczema and food allergy, has been increasing worldwide, as shown in a large number of studies, including the International Study of Asthma and Allergies in Childhood (ISAAC). However, there is significant variation in the prevalence of these diseases in different reg...

Background The gut microbiome harbors antibiotic resistance genes (ARGs), known as the resistome, that has the potential to spread and contribute to the global crisis of antibacterial resistance. Little is known about the genomic traits of the infant resistome, especially in areas with high endemic antibacterial resistance. Methods We analyzed ARG...

Importance Global cesarean delivery (CD) rates have more than doubled over the past 2 decades, with an increasing contribution from elective CDs. Cesarean delivery has been linked to early childhood overweight and obesity, but limited studies have examined elective and emergency CDs separately. Objective To investigate whether elective or emergenc...

eAppendix. Detailed Methods eTable 1. Comparison of Maternal and Infant Characteristics Among Three Subsets of Participants eTable 2. Row Percentages of Categorical Variables Compared Among Different Modes of Delivery eTable 3. Association of Intrapartum and Non-Labour Caesarean Delivery With Risk of Overweight/Overweight at Age 12 Months eTable 4....

There is increasing evidence to support the Developmental Origins of Health and Disease (DOHaD) concept that fetal life and early life exposures are important determinants of fetal immune regulation and the development of disorders in later life, including allergies. Among the early life exposures, maternal vitamin D [25(OH)D] status during pregnan...