MINI REVIEW article
Front. Cell Dev. Biol.
Sec. Molecular and Cellular Pathology
Volume 13 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fcell.2025.1606790
This article is part of the Research TopicMaternal Metabolic Health: From Preconception to PostpartumView all 5 articles
Exercise benefits yourself and your offspring: A mini-review
Provisionally accepted
- 1China West Normal University, Nanchong, Sichuan Province, China
- 2Central China Normal University, Wuhan, China
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Regular physical activity is widely recognized for its systemic health benefits, extending beyond physical fitness to influence metabolism, immunity, and neurophysiology.Pregnancy is a physiologically unique period characterized by dynamic immunometabolic changes that are crucial for maternal and fetal health. Maternal exercise during this window offers a non-pharmacological strategy to enhance maternal well-being and optimize offspring development.This review summarizes recent advances in understanding the effects of maternal exercise on both pregnant women and their offspring. In mothers, exercise improves metabolic profiles, modulates inflammatory responses, supports neuroplasticity, and promotes skeletal health. In offspring, maternal exercise confers long-term benefits including improved glucose metabolism, enhanced neurogenesis, cognitive development, and immune resilience. Mechanistically, these effects are mediated through molecular pathways such as placental superoxide dismutase 3 (SOD3) upregulation, adenosine 5'-monophosphate-activated protein kinase/ten-eleven translocation (AMPK/TET) signaling in the fetal liver, and exercise-induced circulating factors like Apelin and SERPINA3C, which contribute to epigenetic remodeling and tissue-specific programming.Despite growing evidence, gaps remain in understanding the optimal intensity, timing, and molecular mediators of maternal exercise, particularly regarding long-term immune and neurodevelopmental outcomes in offspring. Future studies leveraging multi-omics approaches are needed to elucidate cross-organ signaling mechanisms and identify therapeutic targets to mimic exercise-induced benefits. Overall, maternal exercise emerges as a safe, accessible intervention with significant potential to improve maternal-fetal health and reduce offspring disease risk across the lifespan.
Keywords: Maternal exercise, offspring, Metabolism, neuron development, Immunity
Received: 06 Apr 2025; Accepted: 22 May 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Wang, Zhao, Wang and Liu. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Mairu Liu, Central China Normal University, Wuhan, China
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