036. Nutritional programming, fetal growth and competence for life after birth

Abstract

During the past decade there has been a world-wide series of epidemiological and clinical studies, which have demonstrated that there are associations between prenatal growth restriction and the risk of insulin resistance, central obesity, hypertension, type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular disease in adult life. More recently there has also been increasing interest in the consequences of exposure of the fetus to increased levels of maternal nutrition and whether maternal ‘overnutrition’ may program an ‘intergenerational cycle of obesity’. In this presentation, we review recent experimental evidence that highlights the impact of varying levels of fetal nutrition on the structural and functional development of the adipocyte, and on expression of a range of appetite regulatory peptides within the developing brain. The importance of the timing of nutritional perturbations and the different consequences of fetal undernutrition and overnutrition on subsequent gene expression within different fat depots and on the expression of appetite stimulatory and inhibitory neuropeptides will be reviewed. The importance of defining those critical windows during an individual’s lifespan when nutritional or other intervention strategies will have the maximum benefit in preventing the development of obesity and cardiovascular disease will also be considered.