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Maternal vitamin D deficiency increases lifetime diabetes risk in offspring

Pregnant woman taking medicines
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Studies in mice and in human immune cells link low prenatal vitamin D in mothers to insulin resistance in offspring

Researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis have identified a process in immune cells that links vitamin D deficiency during pregnancy to an increased risk of Type 2 diabetes in offspring. The researchers also found that these immune cells and their embedded genes can be used to transfer Type 2 diabetes into otherwise healthy mice.