ReviewNature metabolism2020
Effects of maternal and paternal exercise on offspring metabolism.
Review in Nature metabolism, 2020. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 72 papers, 2 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
72 citing papers in PubMed, 2 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 114 citations in OpenAlex.
- Maternal Exercise Impacts Offspring Metabolic Health in Adulthood: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis of Animal Studies.Nutrients · 2023Pooled it
- Associations between lifestyle interventions during pregnancy and childhood weight and growth: a systematic review and meta-analysis.The international journal of behavioral nutrition and physical activity · 2021Pooled it
- Prenatal exercise interventions result in subtle changes in the human breast milk metabolome and lipidome 7-14 days postpartum: exploratory analyses of the FitMum randomized controlled trial.International breastfeeding journal · 2026Trial
- Maternal exercise alters placental proteome in an exercise mode-specific manner.American journal of physiology. Endocrinology and metabolism · 2025Trial
- Effects of Structured Supervised Exercise Training or Motivational Counseling on Pregnant Women's Physical Activity Level: FitMum - Randomized Controlled Trial.Journal of medical Internet research · 2022Trial
- Beyond maternal exercise: paternal exercise adaptations mediated by sperm microRNA signatures.Nature reviews. Urology · 2026Article
- Parental Obesity and Offspring Risk for Cardiorenal Diseases.Current hypertension reports · 2026Review
- Mitochondrial Dysfunction: A Critical Link Between Maternal Diet and Offspring Metabolic Health.Biomolecules · 2026Review
- Regular parental pre-mating exercise reduces offspring white adiposity and is associated with hypothalamic neurodevelopmental changes during lactation.Molecular metabolism · 2026Article
- Parental exercise mediates fetal metabolic and cardiac programming.Nature reviews. Endocrinology · 2026Review
- Muscle movement and metabolism: exercise and skeletal muscle as mediators of health-a report from the 26th Annual Harvard Nutrition Obesity Symposium, 2025.The American journal of clinical nutrition · 2026Article
- Cross-Generational Integration of Exercise and Nutritional Encoding in Offspring Adipose Genomics.International journal of molecular sciences · 2026Review
- The gut as a central hub for multi-organ crosstalk in aging.Cellular and molecular life sciences : CMLS · 2026Review
- What is the Influence of Prenatal Physical Activity on Body Weight, BMI, and Health Behavior in Seven-Year-Old Children?Translational sports medicine · 2026Article
- Gestational physical exercise prevents early-life behavioral impairments in the offspring of a rat model of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder.Scientific reports · 2025Article
- Liver as a metabolic sensor in gestational diabetes: Implications for offspring's liver and diabetes risk.World journal of hepatology · 2025Review
- Exercise Delays Brain Ageing Through Muscle-Brain Crosstalk.Cell proliferation · 2025Review
- High-Fat Diet and Metabolic Diseases: A Comparative Analysis of Sex-Dependent Responses and Mechanisms.International journal of molecular sciences · 2025Review
- Intergenerational metabolic effects of cold exposure.Nature metabolism · 2025Article
- Vitamin C-Dependent Intergenerational Inheritance of Enhanced Endurance Performance Following Maternal Exercise.Advanced science (Weinheim, Baden-Wurttemberg, Germany) · 2025Article
12 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
4 authors at 1 institution in 1 country.
Funding
Abstract
Maternal and paternal obesity and type 2 diabetes are recognized risk factors for the development of metabolic dysfunction in offspring, even when the offspring follow a healthful lifestyle. Multiple studies have demonstrated that regular physical activity in mothers and fathers has striking beneficial effects on offspring health, including preventing the development of metabolic disease in rodent offspring as they age. Here, we review the benefits of maternal and paternal exercise in combating the development of metabolic dysfunction in adult offspring, focusing on offspring glucose homeostasis and adaptations to metabolic tissues. We discuss recent findings regarding the roles of the placenta and sperm in mediating the effects of parental exercise on offspring metabolic health, as well as the mechanisms hypothesized to underlie these beneficial changes. Given the worldwide epidemics of obesity and type 2 diabetes, if these findings translate to humans, regular exercise during the reproductive years might limit the vicious cycles in which increased metabolic risk propagates across generations.
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Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.