{"doi":"10.1055/s-0041-1728828","title":"SERUM GLP-2 is Increased in Association with Excess Gestational Weight Gain","abstract":"Objective Obesity in pregnancy bears unique maternal and fetal risks. Obesity has also been associated with chronic inflammation, including elevated serum levels of interleukin-6 (IL-6) and tumor necrosis factor-α (TNF-α). Higher serum lipopolysaccharide (LPS) levels have been implicated in driving this inflammation, a phenomenon called metabolic endotoxemia (ME). GLP-2, a proglucagon-derived peptide, is believed to be integral in maintaining the integrity of the intestine in the face of LPS-mediated endotoxemia. We hypothesized that obesity and/or excess weight gain in pregnancy would be associated with an increase in maternal and neonatal markers of ME, as well as GLP-2. Study Design Paired maternal and neonatal (cord blood) serum samples (n = 159) were obtained from our pregnancy biobank repository. Serum levels of LPS, endotoxin core antibody-immunoglobulin M (EndoCAb-IgM), and GLP-2 were measured by ELISA. IL-6 and TNF-α were measured using a Milliplex assay. Results were stratified by maternal body mass index (BMI), maternal diabetes, and gestational weight gain (GWG). Results Maternal IL-6 is significantly decreased in the obese, diabetic cohort compared with the nonobese, nondiabetic cohorts (95.28 vs. 99.48 pg/mL, p = 0.047), whereas GLP-2 is significantly increased (1.92 vs. 2.89 ng/mL, p = 0.026). Neonatal TNF-α is significantly decreased in the obese cohort compared with the nonobese cohort (12.43 vs. 13.93 pg/mL, p = 0.044). Maternal GLP-2 is significantly increased in women with excess GWG compared with those with normal GWG (2.27 vs. 1.48 ng/mL, p = 0.014). We further found that neonatal IL-6 and TNF-α are negatively correlated with maternal BMI (–0.186, p = 0.036 and –0.179, p = 0.044, respectively) and that maternal and neonatal IL-6 showed a positive correlation (0.348, p < 0.001). Conclusion Although we observed altered levels of markers of inflammation (IL-6 and TNF-α) with maternal obesity and diabetes, no changes in LPS or endoCAb-IgM were observed. We hypothesize that the increased GLP-2 levels in maternal serum in association with excess GWG may protect against ME in pregnancy. Key Points","journal":"American Journal of Perinatology","year":2021,"id":195479,"datarank":0.4326508498780475,"base_score":2.1972245773362196,"endowment":2.1972245773362196,"self_citation_contribution":0.32958368660043297,"citation_network_contribution":0.10306716327761455,"self_endowment_contribution":0.32958368660043297,"citer_contribution":0.10306716327761455,"corpus_percentile":null,"corpus_rank":null,"citation_count":8,"citer_count":8,"citers_with_citation_signal":6,"citers_with_endowment":6,"datacite_reuse_total":0,"is_dataset":false,"is_dataset_confidence":0.9552,"is_data_producer":false,"deposit_databanks":null,"is_oa":true,"file_count":0,"downloads":0,"has_version_chain":false,"published_date":"2021-01-01","fair_score":null,"fair_percentile":null,"algorithm_id":"datarank_citation_only_1hop_v6","ranking_scope":"data_only","authors":[{"id":371966,"name":"Kathleen M. Antony","orcid":"0000-0003-3537-8030","position":1,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":767458,"name":"Megan Galindo","orcid":null,"position":2,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":766782,"name":"Megan Whitham","orcid":"0000-0002-6685-8881","position":3,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":766783,"name":"Min Hu","orcid":"0000-0002-7731-5874","position":4,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":29032,"name":"Kjersti M. Aagaard","orcid":"0000-0002-2960-0371","position":5,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":302638,"name":"Melissa Suter","orcid":"0000-0001-9130-3311","position":6,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":766781,"name":"Maike Kahr","orcid":"0000-0002-1783-5915","position":0,"is_corresponding":true}],"reference_count":35,"raw_metadata":{"citation_network_status":"fetched"},"created_at":"2026-07-18T23:50:07.691929Z","pmid":"33940644","pmcid":null,"fwci":null,"citation_percentile":null,"influential_citations":0,"oa_status":null,"license":null,"views":0,"total_file_size_bytes":0,"version_count":0,"fair_f":null,"fair_a":null,"fair_i":null,"fair_r":null,"fair_zscore":null,"fair_rationale":null,"fair_model":null,"fair_agent_version":null,"fair_fulltext_source":null,"fair_has_llm":null,"fair_computed_at":null,"clinical_trials":[],"software_tools":[],"db_accessions":[],"linked_datasets":[],"topics":[]}