Evidence map›Paper›PMID 42243531›Full record

ArticleExperimental & molecular medicine2026

Sex-specific effects of maternal gestational diabetes mellitus on offspring neurodevelopment: persistent hippocampal neurogenesis deficits in female but not male offspring.

Xiafei Wu, Huisheng Ge, Jie Fang, Jie He, Hongbing Xu, Yangyu Zhao, Philip N Baker, Xinyang Yu, Yubin Ding, Hongbo Qi

Abstract read
In one paragraph

Article in Experimental & molecular medicine, 2026. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Not yet cited in PubMed.

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0citing papers in PubMed
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1 · What the graph read from 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.

2 · The registry

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3 · Its place in the literature

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4 · The record

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5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

10 authors.

Xiafei Wu *Department of Obstetrics, The First Affiliated Hospital of Chongqing Medical University, Chongqing, China.
Huisheng Ge *Department of Gynecology, Chengdu Women's and Children's Central Hospital, School of Medicine, University of Electronic Science and Technology of China, Chengdu, China.
Jie Fang *Department of Obstetrics, The First Affiliated Hospital of Chongqing Medical University, Chongqing, China.
Jie HeDepartment of Obstetrics, The First Affiliated Hospital of Chongqing Medical University, Chongqing, China.
Hongbing XuDepartment of Obstetrics, The First Affiliated Hospital of Chongqing Medical University, Chongqing, China.
Yangyu ZhaoDepartment of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Peking University Third Hospital, Beijing, China.
Philip N BakerFaculty of Medicine and Health Sciences, University of East Anglia, Norwich, UK.
Xinyang YuDepartment of Obstetrics, The First Affiliated Hospital of Chongqing Medical University, Chongqing, China. yu.xinyang@cqmu.edu.cn.
Yubin DingDepartment of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Women and Children's Hospital of Chongqing Medical University, Chongqing, China. dingyb@cqmu.edu.cn.ORCID http://orcid.org/0000-0002-7870-9445
Hongbo QiDepartment of Obstetrics, The First Affiliated Hospital of Chongqing Medical University, Chongqing, China. qihongbo@cqmu.edu.cn.ORCID http://orcid.org/0000-0002-4568-8772

Funding

National Natural Science Foundation of China (National Science Foundation of China) 82171662
6 · The paper itself

Abstract

Gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM) represents a prevalent pregnancy complication with long-term health implications for offspring. While metabolic outcomes have been extensively studied, sex-specific effects on neurodevelopment remain poorly understood. Here we investigated the sex-dependent impact of maternal GDM on offspring brain development and behavior using a high-fat diet and low-dose streptozotocin induced mouse model. We found that adult female offspring exposed to maternal GDM exhibited depressive-like behaviors and sustained impairments in hippocampal neurogenesis across multiple developmental stages (embryonic, weaning and adult), characterized by reduced neural stem cell proliferation and altered differentiation. By contrast, male offspring displayed substantial metabolic dysfunction but no sustained neurogenic deficits beyond the embryonic period. Metabolomic analysis revealed persistent downregulation of myo-inositol in female offspring hippocampus, associated with disruptions in neurogenic signaling pathways. In vitro experiments with female-derived neural stem cells confirmed that hyperglycemic conditions directly impaired proliferation and differentiation, partly through oxidative stress mechanisms. These findings establish a sex-specific vulnerability to GDM-induced neurodevelopmental alterations and identify myo-inositol metabolism as a potential therapeutic target for preventing long-term neuropsychiatric consequences in female offspring. Maternal GDM induces sex-specific effects on offspring neurodevelopment, with females exhibiting persistent hippocampal neurogenesis deficits and depressive-like behaviors, while males show neurogenic resilience. The identification of myo-inositol depletion and oxidative stress as potential contributors to female-specific neurogenic impairments provides new insights into sex-specific vulnerability to maternal metabolic disturbances and suggests potential targets for intervention. HFD, High fat diet; STZ, Streptozotocin; GCL, Granule cell layer; SGZ, Subgranular zone; NSCs, Neural stem cells. Figure created with BioRender.com.

Indexed as

Diabetes, GestationalHippocampusNeurogenesisPrenatal Exposure Delayed EffectsAnimalsCell DifferentiationCell ProliferationDevelopmental Origins of Health and DiseaseDiet, High-FatDisease Models, AnimalFemaleMaleMiceNeural Stem CellsNeurodevelopmentPregnancy

Identifiers

PMID42243531
PMCPMC13324582

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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.