Published in Pediatric Nephrology
There is increasing evidence that primary hypertension, coronary heart disease, and other aspects of the so-called metabolic syndrome that develop in adulthood are primed in fetal life or early postnatally. The identification of this phenomenon, also known as prenatal or fetal programming, and the detailed characterization of the underlying pathome...
Published in Maternal and Child Health Journal
Objective: To review the scientific evidence for prenatal programming of childhood overweight and obesity, and discuss its implications for MCH research, practice, and policy. Methods: A systematic review of observational studies examining the relationship between prenatal exposures and childhood overweight and obesity was conducted using MOOSE gui...
Published in Pediatric Nephrology
It is now accepted that early life environment can modulate adult phenotype. One of the best documented examples is the effect of prenatal environment on adult hypertension and cardiovascular morbidity. Human epidemiologic studies have been complemented with experimental models showing, for example, that maternal dietary manipulations during pregna...
Published in Psychotherapy and Psychosomatics
Background: Medically unexplained (or ‘functional’) symptoms (MUS) are physical symptoms that prompt the sufferer to seek healthcare but remain unexplained after an appropriate medical evaluation. Examples of MUS also occur in veterinary medicine. For example, domestic cats suffer a syndrome comparable to interstitial cystitis, a chronic pelvic pai...
Published in Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology
Female rhesus macaques exhibit matrilineal dominance structures, and high dominance rank confers fitness benefits across a lifetime and across generations. Rank effects are “inherited” through social processes that are well understood; however, biological mechanisms that might impact these processes are not well known. Recently, it has been shown t...
Published in Biogerontology
Human lifespan has been reported to relate to solar activity during prenatal development. The likely key mechanism behind this association is increased mutagenic ultraviolet (UVB) radiation during high solar activity that damages DNA. Here, the aim was to replicate the findings of those previous few studies that have suggested a reduced lifespan of...
Published in Endocrine
Prenatal exposure to a low-protein diet programmes altered expression of genes that regulate lipid metabolism, including SREBP-1c. The main aim of this study was to investigate whether programmed changes to hepatic SREBP-1c expression in the rat are glucocorticoid-dependent. Rats were fed isocaloric diets (control or low-protein) throughout pregnan...
Published in Pediatric Nephrology
Low birth weight is associated with an increased risk of metabolic dysfunction and arterial hypertension in later life. Because of their reduced birth weight twins have been used repeatedly as a natural model to investigate prenatal programming of hypertension. To reveal an early impact of lower nephron endowment on blood pressure, we performed a l...
Published in AGE
Hormones are potent mediators of developmental programming and maternal epigenetic effects. In vertebrates, developmental exposure to maternal androgen hormones has been shown to impact multiple behavioral and physiological traits of progeny, but the possible consequences of this early exposure in terms of aging-related changes in mortality and fit...
Published in EPMA Journal
The prevalence of juvenile obesity is increasing worldwide. Throughout Europe, ca. 20% are affected, in Germany 15%. Many modifiable and nonmodifiable causes have been determined and included, but are not limited to genetic, familiar, and lifestyle factors. In addition, obesity disproportionately affects minority and low socioeconomic status groups...
