Low birth weight: effect on insulin sensitivity and lipid metabolism

Delphine Jaquet1, Jaquet Léger, Claire Lévy-Marchal

  • 1INSERM Unité 457, Hôpital Robert Debré, Paris, France.

Hormone Research
|February 5, 2003
PubMed

Insights

Reduced fetal growth is linked to metabolic and cardiovascular issues like insulin resistance and type 2 diabetes. Genetic and environmental factors likely interact to cause these complications.

Area of Science:

  • Metabolic and Cardiovascular Health
  • Developmental Origins of Health and Disease (DOHaD)

Background:

  • Reduced fetal growth is increasingly recognized as a precursor to metabolic and cardiovascular complications.
  • These complications include insulin resistance syndrome (dyslipidemia, impaired glucose tolerance, type 2 diabetes) and cardiovascular diseases.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To explore the association between reduced fetal growth and metabolic/cardiovascular complications.
  • To investigate the underlying mechanisms, particularly the role of insulin resistance and adipose tissue.

Main Methods:

  • Review of existing literature over the past 10 years.
  • Analysis of proposed hypotheses regarding the etiology of these complications.

Main Results:

  • Insulin resistance appears to be a primary driver of these complications.
  • The link between reduced fetal growth and other metabolic syndrome parameters is less consistent.
  • Genetic predisposition influences the manifestation and onset age of these conditions.

Conclusions:

  • The precise mechanisms linking reduced fetal growth to insulin resistance are still unclear.
  • Adipose tissue may play a crucial role in the development of insulin resistance.
  • Genetic/environmental interactions are the most compelling hypothesis for this association.

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