doi: 10.1161/01.RES.0000260292.95612.ac
© 2007 American Heart Association, Inc.
Editorials |
Developmental Programming Through Epigenetic Changes
From the Centre de recherche (A.M.N.), CHU Ste Justine, Department of Pediatrics, Division of Neonatology, Université de Montréal, Quebec, Canada; Department of Pharmacology and Therapeutics (M.S.), McGill University, Montreal, Quebec, Canada.
Correspondence to Anne Monique Nuyt, MD, Centre de recherche, CHU Ste Justine, Department of Pediatrics, Division of Neonatology, Université de Montréal, 3175 chemin de la Côte Ste Catherine, Montréal, Quebec, Canada H3T 1C5. E-mail anne-monique.nuyt@recherche-ste-justine.qc.ca
See related article, pages 520–526
Key Words: low protein diet • hypertension • developmental origins of adult hypertension • renin angiotensin system
An extract of the first 250 words of the full text is provided, because this article has no abstract. |
The last decade has seen an exponential number of scientific articles addressing the concept of fetal programming of adult onset diseases. Though it has long been known (as it is probably part of common knowledge in human history) that the environment and life events during the fetal period impact on the child’s development, the notion that intrauterine life can also impact on adult health and on the incidence of late onset diseases such as hypertension and type II diabetes is relatively more recent. In 1964, Rose reported the association of ischemic heart disease and infant mortality within the same families (reviewed by1). Then Forsdahl in 1977 showed that incidence of arteriosclerotic heart disease in a certain age group could be correlated with the infant mortality rate of that same population.1 Interest in these types of association rose dramatically following Professor Barker and collaborators’ extensive observations of a well documented population in England and Wales. The meticulous work of home health visitors in the early 20th century, which noted every child weight and length at birth and throughout the first year of life as well as other observations of the mother health and living milieu, generated data which clearly demonstrated an inverse relationship between birthweight and adult incidence of cardiovascular related mortality and morbidities as well as type II diabetes.1 We will focus here on hypertension and related complications. The association between birthweight and adult blood pressure was demonstrated in many parts of the world, in industrialized as well as
Related Article:
Circ. Res. 2007 100: 520-526.