Caffeine Consumption During Pregnancy May Damage Babys Liver

Previous clinical studies have shown that caffeine consumption during pregnancy is linked with lower birth weights, but new research in rats, reported by scientists at Wuhan University, China, now suggests that consuming an amount of caffeine equivalent to 2-3 cups of coffee per day during pregnancy may also impair fetal liver development and increase the risk that offspring will develop liver disease in adulthood. The study found that rat pups exposed to caffeine during pregnancy (prenatal caffeine exposure; PCE) had lower levels of the liver hormone insulin-like growth factor (IGF1), and higher levels of the stress hormone corticosteroid, at birth. Liver development after birth then went through a compensatory “catch up” phase, which was characterized by increased levels of IGF1. “Our results indicate that prenatal caffeine causes an excess of stress hormone activity in the mother, which inhibits IGF1 activity for liver development before birth,” commented Yinxian Wen, PhD, co-author of the team’s published study in the Journal of Endocrinology. “However, compensatory mechanisms do occur after birth to accelerate growth and restore normal liver function, as IGF1 activity increases and stress hormone signaling decreases. The increased risk of fatty liver disease caused by prenatal caffeine exposure is most likely a consequence of this enhanced, compensatory postnatal IGF1 activity.” The researchers, headed by Hui Wang, PhD, reported their results in a paper titled, “Prenatal caffeine exposure induces liver developmental dysfunction in offspring rats.”