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Published on: January 7, 2018
[Programming nutritional and metabolic disorders: the diabetic environment during gestation]
Insights
Fetal development significantly impacts adult health, with both poor and excess fetal growth increasing risks for metabolic syndrome and cardiovascular diseases. Epigenetic factors play a key role in transmitting these risks across generations.
Area of Science:
- Developmental biology
- Public health
- Epigenetics
Background:
- Rising rates of obesity, metabolic disorders, and cardiovascular diseases (CVD) are a global concern.
- Cardiovascular disease risk factors are increasingly identified in infancy, often programmed during fetal development.
- The concept of 'fetal programming' links early-life environment to long-term health outcomes.
Purpose of the Study:
- To explore the concept of fetal programming and its role in metabolic syndrome and CVD.
- To highlight the impact of both poor and excess fetal growth on adult disease risk.
- To emphasize the contribution of epigenetic mechanisms to intergenerational health effects.
Main Methods:
- Review of existing literature on fetal programming.
- Analysis of studies linking early-life environment to adult metabolic and cardiovascular health.
- Examination of epigenetic mechanisms involved in developmental programming.
Main Results:
- Both restricted and excessive fetal growth, such as in pregnancies with maternal diabetes, are associated with increased adult risks.
- Metabolic syndrome, a cluster of CVD risk factors, is increasingly prevalent in youth, particularly with obesity.
- Altered intrauterine environments can lead to adaptations that are transmitted across generations, contributing to adult disease burden.
Conclusions:
- Fetal programming, influenced by the intrauterine environment and epigenetic modifications, plays a critical role in lifelong and intergenerational health.
- Preventive public health programs targeting early life are essential to mitigate the long-term consequences of fetal programming.
- Understanding these mechanisms is crucial for addressing the increasing prevalence of metabolic disorders and cardiovascular diseases.
Abstract:
During the last years, obesity and subsequent metabolic disorders and cardiovascular diseases have tremendously increased. Recent studies have shown that risk factors of cardiovascular diseases appear as soon as in infancy. In many situations, these disorders are programmed in early life during fetal development. These observations have lead to the concept of programming. The first studies on this subject underlined the link between poor fetal growth and the risk of nutritional and metabolic disorders during adulthood. But, it is now evident that excess of fetal growth as it is observed during pregnancy with maternal diabetes leads to the same consequences. The metabolic syndrome or syndrome X is the name for a clustering of risk factors for cardiovascular diseases and type II diabetes that are of metabolic origin. This syndrome, first described in the adults, is more and more studied during childhood and adolescence. Metabolic syndrome is now described in youth, particularly in subjects with risk factors as obesity. Alterations of intra-uterine environment lead to modified early development and represent short-term adaptations transmitted from one generation to another. This intergeneration effect contributes to the burden of adult metabolic disorders and cardiovascular diseases, as seen in the last decades. There is considerable evidence for the contribution of epigenetic mechanisms for the lifelong and the intergenerational alteration of gene transcription by variation in the early life environment. One of the major challenges in the following years is to promote public health programs which are aimed at prevention of long-term consequences of fetal programming.
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