Lipid profiles in middle-aged men and women after famine exposure during gestation: the Dutch Hunger Winter Families Study

Abstract

In women, but not in men, aged approximately 58 y, we observed an association between prenatal undernutrition and elevated total cholesterol concentrations and triglycerides.

A Life Course Perspective on Body Size and Cardio-metabolic Health

“…This transgenerational transmission goes beyond something that might be explained by genetic heritability or by family members of different generations experiencing similar lifelong environments. Maternal exposure to famine, for example, has been shown to be associated with increased risk of giving birth to small offspring with dysregulated lipid profiles (Lumey et al 2009), who themselves go onto have relatively small offspring with large amounts of adiposity and high risk for cardiometabolic disease (Painter et al 2008). In this scenario, direct and simultaneous exposure of three generations (i.e., the pregnant mother, her fetus, and the fetuses' primordial germ cells) might be responsible for the increased disease risk seen in each generation.…”

Prenatal exposure to a natural disaster increases risk for obesity in 5½-year-old children

“…We also assessed maternal smoking during pregnancy in the second questionnaire (any smoking "yes/no" and cigarettes per day). We included cigarettes per day in analyses: 0 (no smoking), 1 (1-5 cigarettes/day), 2 (6-10), 3 (11-15), 4 (16)(17)(18)(19)(20), and 5 (> 20).…”

“…However, the impact of PNMS on cardiometabolic outcomes among humans is not entirely clear. Studies of the offspring of women whose nutrition was marginal during pregnancy, such as during the Dutch Famine, reveal associations among adverse conditions in utero and later adiposity, cardiovascular disease risk, and appetite homeostasis (17)(18)(19), with variations based on the timing of exposure during gestation (20). Maternal stress likely impacts outcomes (20), but it is difficult to determine the extent of its role independent of, or in association with, severe nutrient restriction.…”

Epigenetic regulation in obesity

“…82 Epigenetics in developmental priming for obesity and related disorder from studies in monkey and man Individuals exposed in utero to famine had 60 years later less DNA methylation of the imprinted IGF2 gene and the females had higher circulating lipid levels compared with their unexposed, same-sex siblings. 83,84 This demonstrated that early-life environmental conditions can cause epigenetic changes in humans that persist throughout life. Recently, DNA methylation status in retinoid X receptor-a (positive transcription regulating region of RXRa) of neonates umbilical cord blood was found to be greater in those neonates that prospectively developed greater fat mass at 9 years of age, consistent with lower Rxra expression in 87 ).…”