Location: Microbiome and Metabolism Research
Project Number: 6026-10700-001-020-S
Project Type: Non-Assistance Cooperative Agreement
Start Date: Jun 2, 2024
End Date: May 30, 2029
Objective:
1. Determine the impact of pediatric exercise training and dietary quality on cardiometabolic health.
1.A. Determine the independent and combined effects of exercise training and dietary quality on cardiometabolic health in children with obesity.
1.B. Determine the independent and combined effects of exercise training and dietary quality on cardiometabolic health in children with obesity.
1.C. Evaluate the effects of a dietary and physical activity intervention on sleep duration and quality of children with obesity.
2. Determine how early life physical fitness and activity, dietary quality, and sleep, can predict longer term trajectories of cardiometabolic health.
2.A. Determine the role of childhood physical fitness, sleep, and diet quality in predicting cardiometabolic health trajectories.
2.B. Determine the effects of exercise training and a fruit- and vegetable-rich diet on metabolic health and disease susceptibility across the lifespan in mice.
3. Determine the relative contributions of parental fitness and early life physical activity on offspring’s metabolic health across the lifespan and its translational potential to at risk children.
3.A. Determine the role of parental fitness and early life exercise training on offspring energy metabolism, adiposity and cardiometabolic disease risk across the lifespan.
3.B. Determine the efficacy of a physical activity and nutrition intervention in pre-school age children born to mothers with obesity.
Approach:
Being overweight or obese in early life constitutes a significant risk factor for cardiometabolic disease across the lifespan. As such, much emphasis has been placed on modulating body weight status and in particular adiposity to modify health and disease risk. However, the increasing prevalence of obesity indicates that modulating weight gain is not trivial. Accordingly, consideration of factors that impact overall cardiometabolic health independent of weight loss, and which may be more readily altered by changes in lifestyle, may be a more achievable strategy in terms of promoting cardiometabolic health. There is a pressing need to understand the roles of lifestyle factors such as dietary composition, physical activity and fitness, and sleep, in improving cardiometabolic health independent of changes in
body weight and adiposity. This plan will determine independent and interactive effects of dietary quality, physical activity, inherited and achieved physical fitness, and sleep in promoting pediatric cardiometabolic health and modulating metabolic disease risk trajectories. In Objective 1, we will perform a randomized controlled study in adolescents with obesity to determine the independent and combined effects of dietary composition, physical activity and fitness, and sleep on cardiometabolic health. In Objective 2, we will determine if healthy eating and physical fitness in childhood predict cardiometabolic health trajectories in the transition from childhood to young adulthood using both clinical and preclinical studies. In Objective 3, we will leverage an innovative rodent model to examine how maternal and paternal cardiorespiratory fitness, respectively, influence offspring cardiometabolic health across the lifespan, and how early life exercise modulates cardiometabolic health in offspring with distinct genetic lineages. Additionally, we will investigate the effectiveness of exercise and healthy nutrition interventions in modulating behavior and health outcomes of young children born to obese mothers. Overall, we will employ innovative approaches that span the translational spectrum to interrogate the roles of lifestyle strategies in modulating cardiometabolic health during childhood and across the lifespan. Results will fill key knowledge gaps that will inform guidelines for pediatric physical activity, nutrition, and sleep.
