Developmental origins of cardiovascular disease: Impact of early life stress in humans and rodents

Abstract

The Developmental Origins of Health and Disease (DOHaD) hypothesizes that environmental insults during childhood programs the individual to develop chronic disease in adulthood. Emerging epidemiological data strongly supports that early life stress (ELS) given by the exposure to adverse childhood experiences is regarded as an independent risk factor capable of predicting future risk of cardiovascular disease. Experimental animal models utilizing chronic behavioral stress during postnatal life, specifically maternal separation (MatSep) provides a suitable tool to elucidate molecular mechanisms by which ELS increases the risk to develop cardiovascular disease, including hypertension. The purpose of this review is to highlight current epidemiological studies linking ELS to the development of cardiovascular disease and to discuss the potential molecular mechanisms identified from animal studies. Overall, this review reveals the need for future investigations to further clarify the molecular mechanisms of ELS in order to develop more personalized therapeutics to mitigate the long-term consequences of chronic behavioral stress including cardiovascular and heart disease in adulthood.

Developmental Trajectories of Early Life Stress and Trauma: A Narrative Review on Neurobiological Aspects Beyond Stress System Dysregulation

“…Emerging epidemiologic evidence strongly supports that ELS/CT is an independent albeit silent risk factor of future chronic cardiovascular risk through various systemic and molecular mechanisms (267)(268)(269)(270)(271)(272) and that its effect is particularly heightened among women (273). The recent American Heart Association scientific statement offers a comprehensive review of the literature on the influence of ELS/CT on cardiovascular outcomes (274).…”

Childhood stress and birth timing among African American women: Cortisol as biological mediator

“…There is growing evidence that childhood stress also increases risk for health conditions in adulthood (Murphy et al, 2017; Nusslock and Miller, 2016), including complications of pregnancy such as PTB (Blackmore et al, 2016; Christiaens et al, 2015; Hillis et al, 2004; Smith et al, 2016). What remains unclear is whether childhood stress exerts independent effects on the health of the pregnancy or if stress in adulthood, a noted correlate of childhood stress (Kingston et al, 2012), drives stress-related PTB.…”

Sleep Apnoea and Early Antecedents of Adult Disease

“…Indeed, Barker and Osmond 17 found high rates of death due to coronary heart disease in areas with elevated neonatal mortality in England and Wales and put forth the proposal that intrauterine deprivation was an important mediator of such mortality. Numerous studies have subsequently documented associations between low birth weight and increased incidence of heart disease, hypertension, and type 2 diabetes, as well as relevant markers such as insulin resistance and dyslipidaemias 18,19 . Extrapolation of this early exposure linkage to other diseases such as cancer, neurodegenerative disorders and overall accelerated ageing has gained substantial traction in recent years, further attesting to the importance of internal and external environmental cues to the modulation of homeostatic processes, including those involved in tissue repair and regeneration [20][21][22][23][24][25] .…”