Mother's high-fat diet can cause liver stress in fetus, study shows

When mothers eat a diet high in fat and sugars, their unborn babies can develop liver stress that continues into early life. A new study published in the journal Liver International sheds light on changes to the fetus’s bile acid, which affects how liver disease develops and progresses.

Bile acids typically help with digestion and absorb dietary fats in the small intestine, but when they reach excessive levels, they become toxic and can damage the liver. While the mother can detoxify the acids, the fetus lacks that ability. Bile acids may re-circulate to the mother for detoxification, but if they don’t, they build up in the fetal liver, setting the stage for future problems.

The findings suggest that early exposure to excess bile acids in the womb may be one important factor underlying the early development of metabolic dysfunction-associated steatotic liver disease (MASLD), which affects up to 30% of youth.

“It’s a huge public health concern, as we know mothers with obesity or those eating a poor diet can predispose the next generation to a risk for obesity, diabetes and other metabolic diseases beginning in the womb, thus completing a vicious cycle from mother to infant,” said Jed Friedman, Ph.D., associate vice provost for diabetes programs at the University of Oklahoma Health Sciences and director of OU Health Harold Hamm Diabetes Center. Friedman was co-senior author of the study with Stephanie Wesolowski, Ph.D., of the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus.