Talk:Fetal programming

DOHaD researcher, Michael Meaney

- You might want to take a look at Michael Meaney's work - he's arguably the biggest name in this field in rat work - see e.g. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21420958 and

Hackman DA, Farah MJ, Meaney MJ (2010) Socioeconomic status and the brain: mechanistic insights from human and animal research. Nat Rev Neurosci11:651-9 "Human brain development occurs within a socioeconomic context and childhood socioeconomic status (SES) influences neural development--particularly of the systems that subserve language and executive function. Research in humans and in animal models has implicated prenatal factors, parent-child interactions and cognitive stimulation in the home environment in the effects of SES on neural development. These findings provide a unique opportunity for understanding how environmental factors can lead to individual differences in brain development, and for improving the programmes and policies that are designed to alleviate SES-related disparities in mental health and academic achievement."Gareth Leng 14:03, 30 April 2013 (UTC)

Thanks, Gareth. I grabbed 60 references from PubMed with must-read-inducing titles, planning to study one-a-day. I started Fetal programming as a writing-to-learn exercise, and plan to start the parent topic, Developmental origins of health and disease, sometime soon. Much of Meaney's work will apply there, too, as he has extensively studied post-natal programming by maternal and parental care.

Biology never ceases to amaze.

I welcome your collaboration with either project. Anthony.Sebastian 21:09, 30 April 2013 (UTC)

Sebastian note

Journal of Developmental Origins of Health and Disease (2013), 4(5), 328–337. & Cambridge University Press and the International Society for Developmental Origins of Health and Disease 2013 doi:10.1017/S204017441300010X

REVIEW Developmental programming of cardiovascular disease by prenatal hypoxia

D. A. Giussani1* and S. T. Davidge2 1Department of Physiology, Development and Neuroscience, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK 2Departments of Obstetrics & Gynecology and Physiology, Women and Children’s Health Research Institute, University of Alberta, Edmonton, Canada

It is now recognized that the quality of the fetal environment during early development is important in programming cardiovascular health and disease in later life. Fetal hypoxia is one of the most common consequences of complicated pregnancies worldwide. However, in contrast to the extensive research effort on pregnancy affected by maternal nutrition or maternal stress, the contribution of pregnancy affected by fetal chronic hypoxia to developmental programming is only recently becoming delineated and established. This review discusses the increasing body of evidence supporting the programming of cardiac susceptibility to ischaemia and reperfusion (I/R) injury, of endothelial dysfunction in peripheral resistance circulations, and of indices of the metabolic syndrome in adult offspring of hypoxic pregnancy. An additional focus of the review is the identification of plausible mechanisms and the implementation of maternal and early life interventions to protect against adverse programming.

Received 3 January 2013; Revised 20 February 2013; Accepted 14 April 2013; First published online 18 April 2013

Key words: cardiovascular dysfunction, fetal hypoxia, interventions, metabolic syndrome, treatment