Maternal diet, developmental origins, and the intergenerational transmission of cardiometabolic traits: A window of opportunity for the prevention of metabolic syndrome?

Abstract

Hales and Barkers alternative hypothesis moved beyond simplistic genetic or lifestyle explanations and eventually led to a new paradigm for understanding chronic disease risk.Their main contribution to the advancement of science was the recognition of the powerful role of developmental plasticity, the ability of a gene to generate a range of possible phenotypes depending on environmental experience.This pathway is typified by nutritional excess in early life (e.g., maternal high fat/sugar/energy diets), followed by a Western high-energy/low-fiber diet in adulthood.The forefront of the primary mechanisms that drive developmental programming and its transmission from one generation to the next is epigenetics.Both human and animal studies surmise that the effects of developmentally programmed traits may be transmitted to subsequent generations even if not exposed to the same environmental unbalances.Major example of this trans-generational programming is represented by the high prevalence of cardiovascular risks in the US native Indians and Afro-Americans.Beyond this, a new concept of multigenerational programming is emerging from epigenetic studies.For instance, when a pregnant mother is consuming an inadequate, low-protein diet, three generations are effectively being exposed simultaneously to this dietary insult: The pregnant mother (F0), her fetal offspring (F1), and the primordial germ cells (PGCs)the precursors of sperm and eggswithin the F1 fetus.Multigenerational (i.e., F1, F2) effects have been documented through extensive experimental animal studies as well as epidemiological studies.The existing worldwide obesity epidemic, in tandem with persistent undernutrition and poor food availability, emphasize the importance of research involving the developmental origins and the multigenerational transmission of cardiometabolic dysregulation.If it is true that maternal (and paternal) epigenomes do transmit multigenerational information that affects developmental programming, then this aspect of the evolution of phenotypic plasticity in humans must be accounted for in the structure and content of interventions to improve adult health.