Life course genetic epidemiologic study based on longitudinal twin-family data: a new perspective.

摘要

Family-based life course epidemiology is the approach to clarify long-term effects of accumulations and chains of biological and social risk exposures in one's life trajectory, namely, before and during conception, infancy, childhood, young adulthood and later adult life. Both genetic and environmental factors are considered. One of the theoretical rationales is the 'developmental origin of health and disease (DOHaD)' hypothesis. According to this theory, the causes of adult diseases are attributed to predictive adaptive responses and biological programming or epigenetic changes during a critical period of early life. If the environment later in life after birth is different from what is predicted, a mismatch has happened, leading to the development of a disease. This theory is supported by many epidemiologic studies, animal experiments, and evolution theory of biology. Longitudinal twin-family data are very powerful and useful information in the family-based life course genetic epidemiologic study.