Research based at The University of Auckland's Liggins Institute has won funding from a joint New Zealand - Singapore research initiative into metabolic disease. The International Investment Opportunities funding is supported by the Health Research Council of New Zealand (HRC) and the Singaporean Agency for Science, Technology and Research (A*STAR).

The project, led by Liggins Institute Director Professor Wayne Cutfield in collaboration with Professor Chong Yap Seng at the National University of Singapore, aims to improve the future health of children who are born prematurely. It builds on existing links with research colleagues in Singapore.

Cutfield's team has shown that children born preterm have an abnormality in the way that the hormone insulin regulates glucose metabolism. This condition, known as insulin resistance is a major risk factor for type 2 diabetes. Cutfield says that people who were born prematurely also have a tendency to accumulate extra abdominal fat adding to the likelihood that they will develop type 2 diabetes.

"We plan to follow 120 preterm and 120 term infants over the first six months of their lives. We shall measure the function of genes that control the action of insulin and the deposition of body fat to determine whether there are differences between the two groups of children."

The infants will be drawn from a large longitudinal study 'Growing Up in Singapore Towards healthy Outcomes' (GUSTO) currently underway in Singapore; the gene analyses will be done at the Liggins Institute.

Cutfield explains that during the early neonatal period, the infant takes cues from its environment to set the activity levels of key metabolic genes. "We believe that the different nutritional environment experienced immediately after birth by babies born preterm (compared with those born at term) makes them more vulnerable to metabolic changes associated with diabetes and related adult diseases. We want to see if we can prevent this occurring by manipulating their early nutrition," he says.

The incidence of preterm birth is increasing markedly and now accounts for up to 12% of all births. Its association with chronic adult conditions such as diabetes and cardiovascular diseases poses a significant public health concern world wide. The GUSTO study is part of a major Singaporean initiative to improve understanding of how metabolic diseases develop and to prevent obesity and diabetes in adults. Liggins scientists are already playing a significant role in this research.

"This new funding gives us the opportunity to extend our research collaborations with colleagues in Singapore and to access a larger population of infants for our study," adds Cutfield.