Developmental pathways to adiposity begin before birth and are influenced by genotype, prenatal environment and epigenome.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Obesity is an escalating health problem worldwide, and hence the causes underlying its development are of primary importance to public health. There is growing evidence that suboptimal intrauterine environment can perturb the metabolic programing of the growing fetus, thereby increasing the risk of developing obesity in later life. However, the link between early exposures in the womb, genetic susceptibility, and perturbed epigenome on metabolic health is not well understood. In this study, we shed more light on this aspect by performing a comprehensive analysis on the effects of variation in prenatal environment, neonatal methylome, and genotype on birth weight and adiposity in early childhood.

Methods

In a prospective mother-offspring cohort (N = 987), we interr

SUBMITTER: Lin X 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5340003 | biostudies-literature | 2017 Mar

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature