Placental metabolomics in obese pregnancies

In the last decade several epigenetic, endocrine and functional alterations have been reported in placentas from obese women. Metabolomics analysis can give important clues on the general metabolic profile originating from this scenario. To date, few studies investigated placental metabolomics, suggesting specific metabolic signatures in the presence of maternal obesity, possibly reflecting underlying changes in the intrauterine metabolic environment. Additional studies are now needed to confirm these first data in larger and well characterized populations of obese pregnant women. Several issues still need to be addressed, such as the extent fetal sex can affect the metabolic response to the maternal obese adverse environment. The need of further studies is therefore mandatory for the identification of a specific placental phenotype in obese pregnancies, in order to unravel etiopathologic mechanisms characterizing this condition, even in the setting of optimal prenatal care and pregnancy outcomes.