"Epigenetics may ... help explain how the seeds of many adult diseases may be planted during fetal life. Studies suggest that the nutrition a fetus receives--as indicated by birth weight--might influence the risk of adult-onset diabetes, heart disease, hypertension and some cancers. The basis for such 'fetal programming' has been largely an enigma, but epigenetics may be key.... There is no doubt that in the case of the brown or yellow mice, the 'you are what your mom ate' phenomenon reflects just such epigenetic influences.... Duke scientists fed female mice dietary supplements of vitamin B12, folic acid, betaine and choline just before and throughout their pregnancies. Offspring of mice eating a regular diet had yellowish fur; pups of the supplemented mothers, although genetically identical to the yellow mice, were brown."
Ten Principles of Programming
(From Life in the Womb: The Origin of Health and Disease by Peter W. Nathanielsz, M.D., Ph.D.)
1.) During development, there are critical periods of vulnerability to "suboptimal" conditions. Vulnerable periods occur at different times for different tissues. Cells dividing rapidly are at greatest risk.
2.) Programming has permanent effects that alter responses in later life and can modify susceptibility to disease.
3.) Fetal development is activity dependent. Normal development is dependent on continuing normal activity. Each phase of development provides required conditions to subsequent development.
4.) Programming involves structural changes to important organs.
5.) The placenta plays a key role in programming.
6.) The developing baby will attempt to compensate for deficiencies in the womb. But that compensation carries a price in later life.
7.) Attempts made after birth to reverse the consequences of programming might have their own unwanted consequences.
8.) Fetal cellular mechanisms often differ from adult processes.
9.) The effects of programming might pass across generations by mechanisms that do not involve changes in the genes.
10.) Programming often has different effects in males and females.
http://www.findarticles.com/p/articl...2/ai_111932590
http://www.news.cornell.edu/releases.../womb.hrs.html
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