Epigenetics and Early Life Origins of Chronic Noncommunicable Diseases

摘要

Human health is interconnected throughout the life span from conception to fetal life to early childhood and adolescence and on into adulthood and the senior years. Each stage presents its own unique health needs and problems, yet each of them is interconnected. There is compelling evidence that early life may have a profound impact on health and disease in later life [1-3]. For example, there are four critical periods for the development of obesity: prenatal, early childhood, adolescence, and pregnancy [4]. As related to the prenatal period, with few nutrients, fetal systems develop to thrive in a world of scarcity, which manifests in reduced fetal growth. However, after birth, this "thrifty phenotype" becomes a liability when the postnatal environment provides many more calories and nutrients than the fetal adaptations have predicted. These "double hits" can lead to metabolically disadvantageous phenotypes and increased susceptibility to disease in later life.