Clinical Research Directory

Maternal Characteristics Associated With Child Growth and Adiposity

The goal of this observational study is to investigate the concentrations of leptin, insulin, liver expressed antimicrobial peptide 2 (LEAP2), and cortisol in plasma and breast milk and their relationship with eating behavior, growth, adiposity and with the levels of these hormones in infants, comparing mothers with normal weight and with pre-pregnancy overweight/obesity. The main question\[s\] it aims to answer are: * Are maternal hormones associated with child growth and adiposity * Are maternal hormone receptors associated with child growth and adiposity * Are infant hormones and their receptors associated with child growth and adiposity * Are maternal and infant hormones and their receptors associated with child eating behavior Participants will provide milk and blood samples. Researchers will compare mothers with normal weight and with pre-pregnancy overweight/obesity to see if there are differences in child growth and adiposity .

Metabotyping of Overweight and Obese Children

Today's children are increasingly facing metabolic-related health issues, among which the worldwide prevalence of overweight and obesity is rising at an alarming pace. Childhood obesity is associated with the early onset of chronic diseases including an emergence of prediabetes and diabetes mellitus type 2. The decline of insulin sensitivity already years before puberty, exposes children to long- term complications prior the appearance of clinical symptoms and time of diagnosis. The shortened life expectancy and large economic burden imposed underlines the need for the identification of metabotypes at risk at an early stage. One's genetics, microbial gut composition and every aspect of the environment in which children are raised have been implicated in diet-related obesity rendering metabolomics a very powerful tool towards precision medicine. Yet, the excellence of stool in reflecting the intertwining thereof is completely unexplored for pediatric purposes, whereas blood sampling causing pain and stress for child and parent only captures a narrow fraction of the metabolome. As such, rectal sampling using a customised medical swab for optimal gut metabolome coverage is envisioned. Ambient laser desorption ionisation will be hyphenated to high-resolution mass spectrometry-based metabolomics to provide a framework for elucidating predictive and/or prognostic biomarkers for ever-increasing pediatric metabolic diseases such as obesity and (pre)diabetes.