GDF15 is a hormone that increases during pregnancy. High levels of GDF15 have been linked with nausea and food aversion. Recent work demonstrates that GDF15 plays a causal role in hyperemesis gravidarum, a debilitating condition that results in excessive nausea and vomiting of pregnancy, often resulting in pregnancy complications. During Molly Mulcahy’s doctoral work that focused on glycemic health during pregnancy, she became interested in the role of GDF15 on food intake, weight status, and postnatal health outcomes during normal mouse pregnancy. Using like-genotype mated pairs of whole body Gdf15 knockout and wild type mice, we evaluated pregnancy related food intake and body composition, gestational glycemic health, early postnatal weight status, and lactation for differences between genotypes.
We found that Gdf15 KO abrogates the normal rise of GDF15 during pregnancy. We anticipated that Gdf15 KOs dams would have greater food intake during pregnancy related to having no circulating GDF15 which is known to cause nausea and aversion in mice. However, there were no differences in pregnancy related food intake, body weight, glycemia, offspring body weight, or milk fat percentages between WT and KO animals. This suggests that GDF15, which is elevated during pregnancy, is not necessary for normal weight accretion and glycemic control. These data provide further evidence that recent efforts to modulate GDF15 secretion during pregnancies afflicted with hyperemesis gravidarum may be pursued with minimal impact on the health of a pregnancy.
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