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Can In Utero Exposures Program an Increased Risk for Diseases Later in Life?
Citation:
ROGERS, J. M. Can In Utero Exposures Program an Increased Risk for Diseases Later in Life? 2nd, Barbara Hales, Anthony Scialli, and Melissa Tassinari (ed.), Teratology Primer. John Wiley & Sons Incorporated, New York, NY, 33:83-84, (2010).
Impact/Purpose:
Chapter 33 in a primer of Teratology, published on the TeratologySociety website
Description:
In the early 1990's, David Barker and his colleagues studied the relationship between the incidence of coronary heart disease and birth weight in a population of adult men and women in Hertfordshire, England. They found an inverse correlation between the incidence of coronary heart disease and birth weight -the lower the weight at birth, the higher the risk of coronary heart disease in adulthood. Importantly, this was not simply a problem of low birth weight or premature birth, as the inverse relationship was evident among full-term births within a normal birth weight range (i.e., 5-10 pounds). Subsequent studies by this group and others expanded the range of adult diseases inversely correlated with birth weight to include hypertension, diabetes, and obesity. These are components of the metabolic syndrome, and all contribute to increased risk of coronary heart disease. Since that time, a number of studies around the world have corroborated these findings. The "Barker hypothesis" postulates that organs and metabolic pathways undergo programming during embryonic and fetal life, which determines the set points of physiological and metabolic responses that carry into adulthood