Although genomically imprinted genes could potentially determine programming, several epigenetic mechanisms have been associated with altered genetic expression and the development of disease in adult life. Several epidemiological reports have shown associations between prenatal and postnatal exposures and the development of metabolic syndrome in adult life. Finally, recent experimental studies showing the effects of maternal overnutrition in the adult offspring were presented. Second, we revisited evidence linking maternal low-protein diet with development of metabolic syndrome in rodents. First, associations between birth weight and the increase in cardiovascular risk in humans based on epidemiological observations were discussed. In this paper, recent experimental and epidemiological studies providing evidence for the fetal programming associated with the development of metabolic syndrome and related diseases were reviewed. In humans, both small and large for gestational age newborns have been shown to develop features of metabolic syndrome during growth and adulthood. Several nutritional interventions during diverse phases of pregnancy and lactation in rodents are associated with fetal and neonatal programming for metabolic syndrome. Metabolic syndrome is an aggregation of risk factors (that is, overweight, abdominal obesity, hypertension, dyslipidaemia and glucose intolerance) that strongly correlates with cardiovascular disease. 5 first reported that the risk of ischaemic heart disease was roughly doubled in human subjects whose siblings were still born or died in early childhood, suggesting that adverse exposures during pregnancy could cause diseases in adulthood. Barraclough 4 demonstrated that neonatal administration of testosterone to female rats causes ovulation failure and sterility, which are not observed if the hormone is given later in life. The evidence for fetal programming comes from a large number of experimental and epidemiological observations. 3 Such adaptive responses often cause several diseases in adult life. The concept of programming was later expanded and defined as the process through which the environment encountered before birth, or in infancy, shapes the long-term control of tissue physiology and homeostasis. fetal programming) was first proposed by David Barker 1 and later defined by Alan Lucas 2 as the permanent response of an organism to a stimulus or insult during critical periods of development. The concept of developmental origins of health and disease (a.k.a.
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