You are here:
Smoking and Pregnancy: Epigenetics and the Developmental Origins of the Metabolic Syndrome
Citation:
Rogers, J. Smoking and Pregnancy: Epigenetics and the Developmental Origins of the Metabolic Syndrome. Birth Defects Research. John Wiley & Sons, Inc., Hoboken, NJ, , 1259-1269, (2019). https://doi.org/10.1002/bdr2.1550
Impact/Purpose:
Maternal smoking causes lower birth weight, birth defects and other adverse pregnancy outcomes. Multiple reviews of the epidemiological evidence have been published over the past four decades as evidence has grown stronger and the adverse outcomes attributed to maternal smoking and secondhand smoke exposure have expanded.This review presents findings demonstrating latent and persistent metabolic effects in offspring of smoking mothers similar to those observed in studies of maternal undernutrition during pregnancy. This latter body of work has led to the theory of the Developmental Origins of Health and Disease (DOHaD), which links childhood and adult health and disease outcomes to the intrauterine and early postnatal environment. Also reviewed here are the effects of maternal smoking on the epigenome of the child at birth and in later life. There is clear evidence that maternal smoking is associated with an increased risk of obesity in offspring, and that the pattern of DNA methylation in offspring is altered by maternal smoking during pregnancy. Maternal smoking is a clear example of exposure to an environmental pollutant during pregnancy that causes metabolic disturbances in offspring, and effects on the epigenome may underlie this relationship.
Description:
Maternal smoking causes lower birth weight, birth defects and other adverse pregnancy outcomes. Multiple reviews of the epidemiological evidence have been published over the past four decades as evidence has grown stronger and the adverse outcomes attributed to maternal smoking and secondhand smoke exposure have expanded.This review presents findings demonstrating latent and persistent metabolic effects in offspring of smoking mothers similar to those observed in studies of maternal undernutrition during pregnancy. This latter body of work has led to the theory of the Developmental Origins of Health and Disease (DOHaD), which links childhood and adult health and disease outcomes to the intrauterine and early postnatal environment. Also reviewed here are the effects of maternal smoking on the epigenome of the child at birth and in later life. There is clear evidence that maternal smoking is associated with an increased risk of obesity in offspring, and that the pattern of DNA methylation in offspring is altered by maternal smoking during pregnancy. Maternal smoking is a clear example of exposure to an environmental pollutant during pregnancy that causes metabolic disturbances in offspring, and effects on the epigenome may underlie this relationship.
URLs/Downloads:
DOI: Smoking and Pregnancy: Epigenetics and the Developmental Origins of the Metabolic Syndrome
FINAL MANISCRIPT ORD-030970.DOCX