Tag: Pregnancy
There are increasing evidences that prenatal events influencing in utero milieu and fetal development are associated with risk of developing chronic adult conditions, such as obesity, diabetes, and cardiovascular diseases. Epigenetics is one of the potential molecular mechanisms explaining this phenomenon, often called “fetal metabolic programming.” Epigenetics is defined as heritable regulation of DNA transcription that is independent of the DNA… Read more
Nutrition is the major intrauterine environmental factor that alters expression of the fetal genome and may have lifelong consequences. This phenomenon, termed “fetal programming,” has led to the recent theory of “fetal origins of adult disease.” Namely, alterations in fetal nutrition and endocrine status may result in developmental adaptations that permanently change the structure, physiology,… Read more