Study record
Mitochondrial dysfunction characterises the multigenerational effects of maternal obesity on MASLD
Heldens A, Antwi M, Onghena L et al. · JHEP Rep · 2025
What this study reported
Measured serum MOTS-c alongside FGF21 in adolescents with MASLD and reported that both correlated with disease severity and with a history of maternal obesity. Found in mice that maternal Western diet was associated with greater weight gain, insulin resistance, steatosis, inflammation, fibrosis and reduced OXPHOS activity in male offspring.
Limitations
MOTS-c was a secondary correlative biomarker with no reported human sample size; animal arms used small groups, male offspring only, and one mouse diet model, and the human comparison is cross-sectional.
Study record
| Study model | Animal study (in vivo) |
|---|---|
| Substance studied | Endogenous MOTS-c measuredNaturally occurring MOTS-c was measured; nothing was given. |
| Species | mouse, human |
| System studied | Male offspring of Western-diet-fed mice, including hepatic insulin receptor knockout dams; serum from adolescents with MASLD |
| Population | Adolescents with metabolic dysfunction-associated steatotic liver disease, with or without a history of maternal obesity |
| Design | Controlled multigenerational animal experiment with an exploratory human serum biomarker comparison |
| Sample size as reported | 5-11 mice per group (9-12 per group for knockout offspring; 8-12 per group for treatment); adolescent cohort size not reported |
| Control group | Offspring of normal-chow-fed dams; untreated offspring groups |
| Route (data field only) | Not reported |
| Endpoints measured | serum MOTS-c; serum FGF21; body weight gain and insulin resistance; hepatic steatosis, inflammation and fibrosis; OXPHOS activity and hepatic transcriptome |
| Pathways measured | Lipid metabolism · Insulin & glucose handling · Inflammation |
| Research areas | Liver · Metabolic · Mitochondrial biology · Pregnancy |
| Evidence tier | C — Animal in vivo |
| Publication types | Journal Article |
Appraisal
Each dimension is recorded separately and never combined into a single score. A study can be well controlled and still tell you little about people.
- Relevance to MOTS-c
- Peripheral
- Model applicability
- Mammalian
- Sample size
- Small
- Controls
- Appropriate
- Outcome validity
- Exploratory
- Support for its own conclusion
- Moderate
Provenance
- Bibliographic fields retrieved from PubMed E-utilities efetch (title, journal, date, authors, DOI) on 2026-11-11.
- Annotated from the published abstract.
- Editorial review: approved (2026-11-11).
- Classification follows the site methodology; the record describes the study, not what MOTS-c does in people.