scholarly journals Developmental Origins of Health and Disease, resilience and social justice in the COVID era

Author(s):  
Michael Penkler ◽  
Chandni M Jacob ◽  
Ruth Müller ◽  
Martha Kenney ◽  
Shane A. Norris ◽  
...  

Abstract The COVID-19 pandemic has shone a spotlight on how health outcomes are unequally distributed among different population groups, with disadvantaged communities and individuals being disproportionality affected in terms of infection, morbidity and mortality, as well as vaccine access. Recently, there has been considerable debate about how social disadvantage and inequality intersect with developmental processes to result in a heightened susceptibility to environmental stressors, economic shocks and large-scale health emergencies. We argue that DOHaD Society members can make important contributions to addressing issues of inequality and improving community resilience in response to COVID-19. In order to do so, it is beneficial to engage with and adopt a social justice framework. We detail how DOHaD can align its research and policy recommendations with a social justice perspective to ensure that we contribute to improving the health of present and future generations in an equitable and socially just way.

2019 ◽  
Vol 73 (2) ◽  
pp. 72-79
Author(s):  
Carla Marcantonio

FQ books editor Carla Marcantonio guides readers through the 33rd edition of Il Cinema Ritrovato Festival held each year in Bologna at the end of June. Highlights of this year's festival included a restoration of one of Vittorio De Sica's hard-to-find and hence lesser-known films, the social justice fairy tale, Miracolo a Milano (Miracle in Milan, 1951). The film was presented by De Sica's daughter, Emi De Sica, and was an example of the ongoing project to restore De Sica's archive, which was given to the Cineteca de Bologna in 2016. Marcantonio also notes her unexpected responses to certain reviewings; Apocalypse Now: Final Cut (2019), presented by Francis Ford Coppola on the large-scale screen of Piazza Maggiore and accompanied by remastered Dolby Atmos sound, struck her as a tour-de-force while a restoration of David Lynch's Blue Velvet (1986) had lost some of its strange allure.


Author(s):  
Donald C. Williams

This chapter provides a fuller treatment of the pure manifold theory with an expanded discussion of competing doctrines. It is argued that competing doctrines fail to account for the extensive and/or transitory aspect(s) of time, or they do so at great theoretical cost. The pure manifold theory accounts for the extensive aspect of time because it admits a four-dimensional manifold and it accounts for the transitory aspect of time because it hypothesizes that the increase of entropy is the thing that is ‘felt’ in veridical cases of felt passage. A four-dimensionalist theory of time travel is outlined, along with a sketch of large-scale cosmological traits of the universe.


2021 ◽  
Vol 22 (5) ◽  
pp. 2298
Author(s):  
Chien-Ning Hsu ◽  
You-Lin Tain

The renin-angiotensin-aldosterone system (RAAS) is implicated in hypertension and kidney disease. The developing kidney can be programmed by various early-life insults by so-called renal programming, resulting in hypertension and kidney disease in adulthood. This theory is known as developmental origins of health and disease (DOHaD). Conversely, early RAAS-based interventions could reverse program processes to prevent a disease from occurring by so-called reprogramming. In the current review, we mainly summarize (1) the current knowledge on the RAAS implicated in renal programming; (2) current evidence supporting the connections between the aberrant RAAS and other mechanisms behind renal programming, such as oxidative stress, nitric oxide deficiency, epigenetic regulation, and gut microbiota dysbiosis; and (3) an overview of how RAAS-based reprogramming interventions may prevent hypertension and kidney disease of developmental origins. To accelerate the transition of RAAS-based interventions for prevention of hypertension and kidney disease, an extended comprehension of the RAAS implicated in renal programming is needed, as well as a greater focus on further clinical translation.


2021 ◽  
Vol 22 (2) ◽  
pp. 933
Author(s):  
Maria E. Street ◽  
Karine Audouze ◽  
Juliette Legler ◽  
Hideko Sone ◽  
Paola Palanza

Endocrine disrupting chemicals (EDCs) are exogenous chemicals which can disrupt any action of the endocrine system, and are an important class of substances which play a role in the Developmental Origins of Health and Disease (DOHaD) [...]


Author(s):  
Kelli F Malott ◽  
Ulrike Luderer

Abstract Oocyte mitochondria are unique organelles that establish a founder population in primordial germ cells (PGCs). As the oocyte matures in the postnatal mammalian ovary during folliculogenesis it increases exponentially in volume, and the oocyte mitochondria population proliferates to about 100 000 mitochondria per healthy, mature murine oocyte. The health of the mature oocyte and subsequent embryo is highly dependent on the oocyte mitochondria. Mitochondria are especially sensitive to toxic insults, as they are a major source of reactive oxygen species (ROS), they contain their own DNA (mtDNA) that is unprotected by histone proteins, they contain the electron transport chain that uses electron donors, including oxygen, to generate ATP, and they are important sensors for overall cellular stress. Here we review the effects that toxic insults including chemotherapeutics, toxic metals, plasticizers, pesticides, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), and ionizing radiation can have on oocyte mitochondria. This is very clearly a burgeoning field, as our understanding of oocyte mitochondria and metabolism is still relatively new, and we contend much more research is needed to understand the detrimental impacts of exposure to toxicants on oocyte mitochondria. Developing this field further can benefit our understanding of assisted reproductive technologies and the developmental origins of health and disease (DOHaD).


2020 ◽  
Vol 16 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Luseadra McKerracher ◽  
Tina Moffat ◽  
Mary Barker ◽  
Meghan McConnell ◽  
Stephanie A. Atkinson ◽  
...  

Antioxidants ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
pp. 33
Author(s):  
Chien-Ning Hsu ◽  
You-Lin Tain

The “developmental origins of health and disease” theory indicates that many adult-onset diseases can originate in the earliest stages of life. The developing kidney has emerged as being particularly vulnerable to adverse in utero conditions leading to morphological and functional changes, namely renal programming. Emerging evidence indicates oxidative stress, an imbalance between reactive oxygen/nitrogen species (ROS/RNS) and antioxidant systems, plays a pathogenetic role in the developmental programming of kidney disease. Conversely, perinatal use of antioxidants has been implemented to reverse programming processes and prevent adult-onset diseases. We have termed this reprogramming. The focus of this review is twofold: (1) To summarize the current knowledge on oxidative stress implicated in renal programming and kidney disease of developmental origins; and (2) to provide an overview of reprogramming effects of perinatal antioxidant therapy on renal programming and how this may prevent adult-onset kidney disease. Although early-life oxidative stress is implicated in mediating renal programming and adverse offspring renal outcomes, and animal models provide promising results to allow perinatal antioxidants applied as potential reprogramming interventions, it is still awaiting clinical translation. This presents exciting new challenges and areas for future research.


2012 ◽  
Vol 2012 ◽  
pp. 1-2 ◽  
Author(s):  
Simon C. Langley-Evans ◽  
Barbara Alexander ◽  
Harry J. McArdle ◽  
Deborah M. Sloboda

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