scholarly journals Regulation of leptin synthesis and secretion before birth: implications for the early programming of adult obesity

Reproduction ◽  
2006 ◽  
Vol 131 (3) ◽  
pp. 415-427 ◽  
Author(s):  
I C McMillen ◽  
L J Edwards ◽  
J Duffield ◽  
B S Muhlhausler
Keyword(s):  
Early Life ◽  
Experimental Studies ◽  
Adult Life ◽  
Fetal Brain ◽  
Fetal Life ◽  
Adult Obesity ◽  
Nutritional Environment ◽  
Hypothalamic Neuropeptides ◽  
Potential Impact

A series of epidemiological, clinical and experimental studies have shown that there are associations between the fetal and neonatal nutritional environment and the amount and distribution of adipose tissue in adult life. This review considers the evidence for these relationships and discusses the potential impact of the prenatal nutritional experience on the development of the endocrine and neuroendocrine systems that regulate energy balance, with a particular emphasis on the role of the adipocyte-derived hormone, leptin. In the rodent, leptin derived from the mother may exert an important influence on the development of the appetite regulatory neural network and on the subsequent regulation of leptin synthesis and the risk for obesity in the offspring. In species such as the human and sheep, there is also recent evidence that the synthesis and secretion of adipocyte-derived hormones, such as leptin, are regulated in fetal life. Furthermore, the hypothalamic neuropeptides that regulate energy intake and expenditure in adult life are also present within the fetal brain and may be regulated by the prevailing level of maternal and hence fetal nutrient and hormonal signals, including leptin. This work is important in determining those initiating mechanisms within the ‘fat–brain’ axis in early life that precede the development of adult obesity.

scholarly journals Developmental programming of health and disease

2006 ◽  
Vol 65 (1) ◽  
pp. 97-105 ◽  
Author(s):  
Simon C. Langley-Evans
Keyword(s):  
Fetal Growth ◽  
Early Life ◽  
Animal Studies ◽  
Strong Predictor ◽  
Experimental Studies ◽  
Adult Life ◽  
Human Populations ◽  
Fetal Life ◽  
Nutrient Imbalance ◽  
The Impact

The environment encountered in fetal and neonatal life exerts a profound influence on physiological function and risk of disease in adult life. Epidemiological evidence suggests that impaired fetal growth followed by rapid catch-up in infancy is a strong predictor of obesity, hypertension, non-insulin-dependent diabetes and CHD. Whilst these associations have been widely accepted to be the product of nutritional factors operating in pregnancy, evidence from human populations to support this assertion is scarce. Animal studies clearly demonstrate that there is a direct association between nutrient imbalance in fetal life and later disease states, including hypertension, diabetes, obesity and renal disease. These associations are independent of changes in fetal growth rates. Experimental studies examining the impact of micro- or macronutrient restriction and excess in rodent pregnancy provide clues to the mechanisms that link fetal nutrition to permanent physiological changes that promote disease. Exposure to glucocorticoids in early life appears to be an important consequence of nutrient imbalance and may lead to alterations in gene expression that have major effects on tissue development and function. Epigenetic mechanisms, including DNA methylation, may also be important processes in early-life programming.

Maternal Nutrition and Fetal Programming of the Immune System: Epidemiological and Experimental Evidences

2019 ◽  
pp. 1-8
Author(s):  
Siti Rohaiza Ahmad
Keyword(s):  
Immune System ◽  
Fetal Programming ◽  
Maternal Nutrition ◽  
Negative Impact ◽  
Experimental Studies ◽  
Adult Life ◽  
Experimental Models ◽  
Fetal Life ◽  
Immune Functions ◽  
Immune System Development

Maternal nutrition will not only affects pregnancy outcomes (such as birth weight) but will also affect the state of the fetus in their adult life in terms of diseases occurrence and also immune system development. Inadequate nutrition particularly will have a negative impact on the proliferation of the various cell populations responsible for the immune functions as well as the accumulation of high concentrations of inflammatory components. Maternal nutrition affects immunity ‘programming' during the period of pre-natal and post-natal life. Over the last decade, epidemiological and experimental studies have helped to expedite more understanding of immunity ‘programming.' External exposures such as smoking, alcohol and drugs during fetal life have also shown to have an impact on immunity ‘programming.' In this review, the relationship between fetal programming and the immune system, such as effects on the various immune-cellular components through some evidence from epidemiological and experimental models will be discussed.

Maternal Vitamin D and its Role in Determining Fetal Origins of Mental Health

2020 ◽  
Vol 26 (21) ◽  
pp. 2497-2509 ◽  
Author(s):  
Giulia Lisi ◽  
Michele Ribolsi ◽  
Alberto Siracusano ◽  
Cinzia Niolu
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health ◽  
Vitamin D ◽  
Adult Life ◽  
Fetal Brain ◽  
Stressful Events ◽  
Mental Illnesses ◽  
Fetal Life ◽  
Fetal Origins ◽  
Maternal Vitamin ◽  
Vitamin D Levels

: There is evidence that mental health disorders may have roots in fetal life and are associated with deficiencies in various micronutrients, including vitamin D. During pregnancy, vitamin D balance is influenced by an increase in maternal calcitriol and a substantial increase in maternal Vitamin D Binding Protein concentrations. In the early stages of life, vitamin D is necessary to mediate numerous brain processes such as proliferation, apoptosis, and neurotransmission. Furthermore, Vitamin D has a recognized anti-inflammatory activity that normally suppresses inflammation. Increased activation of hypothalamo-pituitary-adrenal axis (HPA) and inflammation during gestation may influence maternal health and fetal neurodevelopment during and beyond pregnancy. A deficit of Vitamin D and maternal stressful events during gestation, such as perinatal depression, could influence the efficacy of the immune system altering its activity. : Vitamin D deficiency during gestation associated with a reduction in fetal brain development has been widely described and correlated with alteration in the production of the brain-derived neurotrophic factor. To this regard, many studies highlights that low maternal vitamin D dosage during gestation has been related to a significantly greater risk to develop schizophrenia and other severe mental illnesses in later life. The objective of this paper is a comprehensive overview of maternal vitamin D balance in determining the fetal origins of mental health with some references to the link between vitamin D levels, inflammatory responses to stress and mental disorders in adult life.

scholarly journals The interactions between genetics and early childhood nutrition influence adult cardiometabolic risk factors

2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Carol A. Wang ◽  
John R. Attia ◽  
Stephen J. Lye ◽  
Wendy H. Oddy ◽  
Lawrence Beilin ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Risk Factors ◽  
Early Life ◽  
Adult Health ◽  
Adult Obesity ◽  
Lower Systolic Blood Pressure ◽  
Childhood Nutrition ◽  
Adult Disease ◽  
Healthy Nutrition ◽  
Early Childhood Nutrition

AbstractIt is well established that genetics, environment, and interplay between them play a crucial role in adult disease. We aimed to evaluate the role of genetics, early life nutrition, and the interaction between them, on optimal adult health. As part of a large international consortium (n ~ 154,000), we identified 60 SNPs associated with both birthweight and adult disease. Utilising the Raine Study, we developed a birthweight polygenic score (BW-PGS) based on the 60 SNPs and examined relationships between BW-PGS and adulthood cardiovascular risk factors, specifically evaluating interactions with early life nutrition. Healthy nutrition was beneficial for all individuals; longer duration of any breastfeeding was particularly associated with lower BMI and lower Systolic Blood Pressure in those with higher BW-PGS. Optimal breastfeeding offers the greatest benefit to reduce adult obesity and hypertension in those genetically predisposed to high birthweight. This provides an example of how precision medicine in early life can improve adult health.

Developmental Origins of the Metabolic Syndrome: Prediction, Plasticity, and Programming

2005 ◽  
Vol 85 (2) ◽  
pp. 571-633 ◽  
Author(s):  
I. Caroline Mcmillen ◽  
Jeffrey S. Robinson
Keyword(s):  
Metabolic Syndrome ◽  
Health Outcomes ◽  
Cellular Proliferation ◽  
Experimental Studies ◽  
Adult Life ◽  
Epidemiological Studies ◽  
The Metabolic Syndrome ◽  
Organ Systems ◽  
Postnatal Environment ◽  
Nutritional Environment

The “fetal” or “early” origins of adult disease hypothesis was originally put forward by David Barker and colleagues and stated that environmental factors, particularly nutrition, act in early life to program the risks for adverse health outcomes in adult life. This hypothesis has been supported by a worldwide series of epidemiological studies that have provided evidence for the association between the perturbation of the early nutritional environment and the major risk factors (hypertension, insulin resistance, and obesity) for cardiovascular disease, diabetes, and the metabolic syndrome in adult life. It is also clear from experimental studies that a range of molecular, cellular, metabolic, neuroendocrine, and physiological adaptations to changes in the early nutritional environment result in a permanent alteration of the developmental pattern of cellular proliferation and differentiation in key tissue and organ systems that result in pathological consequences in adult life. This review focuses on those experimental studies that have investigated the critical windows during which perturbations of the intrauterine environment have major effects, the nature of the epigenetic, structural, and functional adaptive responses which result in a permanent programming of cardiovascular and metabolic function, and the role of the interaction between the pre- and postnatal environment in determining final health outcomes.

Theoretical and Empirical Research in Modern Economics: Problems of Communication

2008 ◽  
pp. 4-19 ◽  
Author(s):  
A. Libman
Keyword(s):  
Empirical Research ◽  
Econometric Methods ◽  
Potential Impact ◽  
Empirical Turn

The last decades witnessed the increasing importance of econometric methods and empirical research in economics. The success of the empirical turn in economics depends on the formats and problems of communication between theory and empirics. The paper considers potential difficulties in communication "from the theory to empirical research" and "from empirical research to theory". It analyzes the role of informal consensus as an instrument facilitating such communication and potential impact of this consensus on the direction of research.

The role of placental growth factor in regulating fetal brain vascular development

2014 ◽  
Author(s):  
Matthew T Ratsep ◽  
Bruno Zavan ◽  
Nicki Peterson ◽  
Leandra Tolusso ◽  
Vanessa Kay ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Growth Factor ◽  
Vascular Development ◽  
Fetal Brain ◽  
Placental Growth Factor

Calculation-and-experimental estimation of the role of the frequency ratio in changing the endurance at two-frequency deformation modes

2019 ◽  
Vol 85 (1(I)) ◽  
pp. 64-71 ◽  
Author(s):  
M. M. Gadenin
Keyword(s):  
High Frequency ◽  
Experimental Studies ◽  
Low Frequency ◽  
Reduction Factor ◽  
Single Frequency ◽  
Cyclic Loads ◽  
Small Ratio ◽  
Harmonic Components ◽  
Deformation Modes

The cycle configuration at two-frequency loading regimes depends on the number of parameters including the absolute values of the frequencies and amplitudes of the low-frequency and high-frequency loads added during this mode, the ratio of their frequencies and amplitudes, as well as the phase shift between these harmonic components, the latter having a significant effect only with a small ratio of frequencies. Presence of such two-frequency regimes or service loading conditions for parts of machines and structures schematized by them can significantly reduce their endurance. Using the results of experimental studies of changes in the endurance of a two-frequency loading of specimens of cyclically stable, cyclically softened and cyclically hardened steels under rigid conditions we have shown that decrease in the endurance under the aforementioned conditions depends on the ratio of frequencies and amplitudes of operation low-frequency low-cycle and high-frequency vibration stresses, and, moreover, the higher the level of the ratios of amplitudes and frequencies of those stacked harmonic processes of loading the greater the effect. It is shown that estimation of such a decrease in the endurance compared to a single frequency loading equal in the total stress (strains) amplitudes can be carried out using an exponential expression coupling those endurances through a parameter (reduction factor) containing the ratio of frequencies and amplitudes of operation cyclic loads and characteristic of the material. The reduction is illustrated by a set of calculation-experimental curves on the corresponding diagrams for each of the considered types of materials and compared with the experimental data.

Helping when desire is low: The role of Expectancy in helping

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Małgorzata Kossowska
Keyword(s):  
Experimental Studies ◽  
Helping Behavior ◽  
Perceived Effectiveness ◽  
Do So

One might assume that the desire to help (here described as Want) is the essential driver of helping declarations and/or behaviors. However, even if desire to help is low, helping behavior may still occur if the expectancy regarding the perceived effectiveness of helping is high. We tested these predictions in a set of three experimental studies. In all three, we measured the desire to help (Want) and the Expectancy that the aid would be impactful for the victim; in addition, we manipulated Expectancy in Study 3. In Studies 1 and 3, we measured the participants’ declaration to help while in Study 2, their helping behavior was examined. In all three studies, we used variations of the same story about a victim. The results supported our hypothesis. Thus, the studies help to tease apart the determinants of helping behavior under conditions of lowered desire to do so, an issue of great importance in public policymaking.

The capacity of short term memory from an evolutionary perspective

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Majid Manoochehri
Keyword(s):  
Short Term Memory ◽  
Memory Span ◽  
Critical Role ◽  
Experimental Studies ◽  
Cognitive System ◽  
Evolutionary Approach ◽  
Evolutionary Perspective ◽  
Short Term ◽  
Term Memory

Memory span in humans has been intensely studied for more than a century. In spite of the critical role of memory span in our cognitive system, which intensifies the importance of fundamental determinants of its evolution, few studies have investigated it by taking an evolutionary approach. Overall, we know hardly anything about the evolution of memory components. In the present study, I briefly review the experimental studies of memory span in humans and non-human animals and shortly discuss some of the relevant evolutionary hypotheses.

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