https://www.thelancet.com/pdfs/journals/lancet/PIIS0140-6736(07)61692-4.pdf

Maternal and child undernutrition: consequences for adult health and human capital.

The "fetal" or "early" origins of adult disease hypothesis was originally put forward by David Barker and colleagues and stated that environmental factors, particularly nutrition, act in early life to program the risks for adverse health outcomes in adult life. This hypothesis has been supported by a worldwide series of epidemiological studies that have provided evidence for the association between the perturbation of the early nutritional environment and the major risk factors (hypertension, insulin resistance, and obesity) for cardiovascular disease, diabetes, and the metabolic syndrome in adult life. It is also clear from experimental studies that a range of molecular, cellular, metabolic, neuroendocrine, and physiological adaptations to changes in the early nutritional environment result in a permanent alteration of the developmental pattern of cellular proliferation and differentiation in key tissue and organ systems that result in pathological consequences in adult life. This review focuses on those experimental studies that have investigated the critical windows during which perturbations of the intrauterine environment have major effects, the nature of the epigenetic, structural, and functional adaptive responses which result in a permanent programming of cardiovascular and metabolic function, and the role of the interaction between the pre- and postnatal environment in determining final health outcomes.

https://www.physiology.org/doi/pdf/10.1152/physrev.00053.2003

Developmental Origins of the Metabolic Syndrome: Prediction, Plasticity, and Programming

Epidemiological observations have led to the hypothesis that the risk of developing some chronic noncommunicable diseases in adulthood is influenced not only by genetic and adult life-style factors but also by environmental factors acting in early life. Research in evolutionary biology, developmental biology, and animal and human physiology provides support for this idea and suggests that environmental processes influencing the propensity to disease in adulthood operate during the periconceptual, fetal, and infant phases of life. This "developmental origins of health and disease" concept may have important biological, medical, and socioeconomic implications.

https://science.sciencemag.org/content/sci/305/5691/1733.full.pdf

Living with the past: evolution, development, and patterns of disease

Nitric Oxide Donors: Chemical Activities and Biological Applications

Extensive experimental animal studies and epidemiological observations have shown that environmental influences during early development affect the risk of later pathophysiological processes associated with chronic, especially noncommunicable, disease (NCD). This field is recognized as the developmental origins of health and disease (DOHaD). We discuss the extent to which DOHaD represents the result of the physiological processes of developmental plasticity, which may have potential adverse consequences in terms of NCD risk later, or whether it is the manifestation of pathophysiological processes acting in early life but only becoming apparent as disease later. We argue that the evidence suggests the former, through the operation of conditioning processes induced across the normal range of developmental environments, and we summarize current knowledge of the physiological processes involved. The adaptive pathway to later risk accords with current concepts in evolutionary developmental biology, especially those concerning parental effects. Outside the normal range, effects on development can result in nonadaptive processes, and we review their underlying mechanisms and consequences. New concepts concerning the underlying epigenetic and other mechanisms involved in both disruptive and nondisruptive pathways to disease are reviewed, including the evidence for transgenerational passage of risk from both maternal and paternal lines. These concepts have wider implications for understanding the causes and possible prevention of NCDs such as type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular disease, for broader social policy and for the increasing attention paid in public health to the lifecourse approach to NCD prevention.

Early developmental conditioning of later health and disease: physiology or pathophysiology?

The incidence of the metabolic syndrome, a cluster of abnormalities focusing on insulin resistance and associated with high risk for cardiovascular disease and diabetes, is reaching epidemic proportions. Prevalent in both developed and developing countries, the metabolic syndrome has largely been attributed to altered dietary and lifestyle factors that favour the development of central obesity. However, population-based studies have suggested that predisposition to the metabolic syndrome may be acquired very early in development through inappropriate fetal or neonatal nutrition. Further evidence for developmental programming of the metabolic syndrome has now been suggested by animal studies in which the fetal environment has been manipulated through altered maternal dietary intake or modification of uterine artery blood flow. This review examines these studies and assesses whether the metabolic syndrome can be reliably induced by the interventions made. The validity of the different species, diets, feeding regimes and end-point measures used is also discussed.

https://physoc.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1113/jphysiol.2004.072009

Developmental programming of the metabolic syndrome by maternal nutritional imbalance: how strong is the evidence from experimental models in mammals?

Epidemiological studies suggest an association between maternal nutrition and offspring cardiovascular disease. We previously demonstrated endothelial dysfunction and abnormal aortic fatty acid composition in adult female offspring of rats fed animal lard during pregnancy. We have now further investigated this model. Female Sprague-Dawley rats were fed a control breeding diet (5.3% fat) or a diet rich in lard (25.7% fat) 10 days before and throughout pregnancy and lactation. Male and female offspring were implanted with radiotelemeters for recording of blood pressure, heart rate, and activity at 80, 180, and 360 days of age. Reactivity to acetylcholine and to nitric oxide were assessed in isolated small mesenteric arteries from 80- and 180-day-old littermates. Systolic blood pressure (awake phase) was raised in female offspring (180 days: offspring of control, 130.7±1.6 mm Hg, n=5, versus offspring of lard-fed, 138.1±2.9, n=5, P=0.029; 360 days: offspring of control, 129.7±3.7 mm Hg, n=6, versus offspring of lard-fed, 142.1±3.2, n=6, P=0.005). Diastolic blood pressure was also raised at 180 days (offspring of control, 87.6±1.0 mm Hg, n=5, versus offspring of lard-fed, 94.7±2.6, n=5, P=0.011). Blood pressure was not raised in male offspring. Endothelium-dependent relaxation to acetylcholine was blunted in male and female offspring of lard-fed dams (80 and 180 days). Feeding a diet rich in lard to pregnant rats leads to gender-related cardiovascular dysfunction in normally fed offspring.

Gender-Linked Hypertension in Offspring of Lard-Fed Pregnant Rats

Epidemiological and animal studies suggest that diet-induced epigenetic modifications in early life can contribute to development of the metabolic syndrome in adulthood. We previously reported feat...

A high-fat diet during rat pregnancy or suckling induces cardiovascular dysfunction in adult offspring

We previously reported that prenatal and suckling exposure to a maternal diet rich in animal fat leads to cardiovascular dysfunction in young adult rat offspring with subsequent development of dysl...

https://www.physiology.org/doi/pdf/10.1152/ajpregu.00355.2004

Impaired glucose homeostasis and mitochondrial abnormalities in offspring of rats fed a fat-rich diet in pregnancy

Background— Population-based studies suggest that fetal adaptive responses to maternal dietary imbalance confer survival benefit when the postnatal diet remains suboptimal but increase susceptibility to cardiovascular disease when postnatal nutrition is improved. We have investigated “predictive adaptive” responses in a rodent model in which adult offspring of fat-fed dams develop characteristics of the metabolic syndrome. Methods and Results— Sprague-Dawley rats were fed a fat-rich diet or normal chow throughout pregnancy and weaning. Vascular endothelial function and blood pressure were determined in 180-day-old offspring of fat-fed dams raised on standard chow (FC) or on the fat-rich diet (FF) and in offspring of chow-fed dams raised on chow (CON). Small mesenteric artery endothelium-dependent dilation to acetylcholine was impaired in male and female FC (by ANOVA, P<0.001 versus CON) but similar to CON in FF (P=NS). Blood glucose was lower in FF versus FC. Heart rate was reduced in male FC versus CON (...

I Y Khan

Papers

Developmental programming of the metabolic syndrome by maternal nutritional imbalance: how strong is the evidence from experimental models in mammals?

Gender-Linked Hypertension in Offspring of Lard-Fed Pregnant Rats

A high-fat diet during rat pregnancy or suckling induces cardiovascular dysfunction in adult offspring

Impaired glucose homeostasis and mitochondrial abnormalities in offspring of rats fed a fat-rich diet in pregnancy

Predictive Adaptive Responses to Maternal High-Fat Diet Prevent Endothelial Dysfunction but Not Hypertension in Adult Rat Offspring