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The developmental environment, epigenetic biomarkers and long-term health

Part of: Sir David Barker Symposium

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 May 2015

K. M. Godfrey ,
P. M. Costello  and
K. A. Lillycrop
K. M. Godfrey*
Affiliation:
MRC Lifecourse Epidemiology Unit, University of Southampton, Southampton, UK NIHR Southampton Biomedical Research Centre, University Hospital Southampton NHS Foundation Trust, Southampton, UK
P. M. Costello
Affiliation:
Institute of Developmental Sciences, Academic Unit of Human Development and Health, University of Southampton, Southampton, UK
K. A. Lillycrop
Affiliation:
Centre for Biological Sciences, University of Southampton, Southampton, UK
*
*Address for correspondence: Professor K. Godfrey, MRC Lifecourse Epidemiology Unit, NIHR Southampton Biomedical Research Centre, University Hospital Southampton NHS Foundation Trust and University of Southampton, Southampton, SO16 6YD, UK. (Email [email protected])
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Abstract

Evidence from both human and animal studies has shown that the prenatal and early postnatal environments influence susceptibility to chronic disease in later life and suggests that epigenetic processes are an important mechanism by which the environment alters long-term disease risk. Epigenetic processes, including DNA methylation, histone modification and non-coding RNAs, play a central role in regulating gene expression. The epigenome is highly sensitive to environmental factors in early life, such as nutrition, stress, endocrine disruption and pollution, and changes in the epigenome can induce long-term changes in gene expression and phenotype. In this review we focus on how the early life nutritional environment can alter the epigenome leading to an altered susceptibility to disease in later life.

Keywords

developmental environmentDNA methylationepigeneticsnutrition
Type
Review
Information
Journal of Developmental Origins of Health and Disease , Volume 6 , Issue 5: Themed Issue: David Barker commemorative meeting, September 2014; Prenatal Exposures and Health Outcomes , October 2015 , pp. 399 - 406
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Copyright
© Cambridge University Press and the International Society for Developmental Origins of Health and Disease 2015 

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