Abstract

Children born to mothers with diabetes face a significantly higher risk of developing congenital heart defects (CHDs). While medical advances now allow most of these children to reach adulthood, many experience early heart problems—such as arrhythmias or heart failure—at a much younger age than expected. Our research aims to understand how exposure to high blood sugar in the womb may leave lasting “marks” on the baby’s heart that persist through life and accelerate aging.

Using a mouse model, we are tracking heart health from birth through old age. We apply cutting-edge tools to examine how gene activity and DNA methylation (a form of epigenetic marking) evolve in specific heart cells over time. By comparing animals born to diabetic versus non-diabetic mothers, we hope to uncover how diabetes during pregnancy reprograms the heart, making it more vulnerable to age-related decline.

This project bridges the fields of diabetes, developmental biology, and aging to understand how prenatal exposures shape cardiac vulnerability. By identifying early warning signs of heart aging that begin in the womb and worsen over time, we aim to uncover molecular clues that signal future heart trouble—guiding better tools to monitor heart health and new strategies to prevent problems later in life.