Fetal and early postnatal origins of cardiovascular and renal diseases in adulthood.

TOMAT AL

Buenos Aires

Conferencia; International Congress of Translational Medicine. ¨Cellular and Molecular Pathways as Therapeutic Target; 2014

International Master Program in Biomedical Sciences

Multiple nutritional, environmental and hormonal factors can affect our health in different stages of our lives. However, adverse events during intrauterine and early postnatal life, that slow growth, can alter the structure and physiology of organs, programming risk for endocrine, metabolic, cardiovascular and renal diseases in later stages of life. The hypothesis that nutrition during early life influences later cardiovascular health  dates back to several decades ago when Barker reported an inverse relationship between birth weight and blood pressure in children at 10 years of age. Therefore, Barker postulated that hypertension was the link between an adverse fetal environment and the increased risk of cardiovascular disease later in life. The mechanisms involved are: increase in oxidative stress, imbalance between apoptotic and proliferative processes, low tissue oxygenation, changes in gene expression, hyperactivity of the sympathetic nervous system, elevated glucocorticoid levels, decreased activity of IGF-1 and Growth hormone, alteration of the renin angiotensin, NO and prostaglandins systems. Insults during development program long-term cardiovascular risk in a manner that is sex and age dependent. Experimental models of developmental programming demonstrate sex differences differ in their response to the severity of the developmental insult or exhibit age-dependent changes in cardiovascular risk. These highlight the complexity of developmental insults on later chronic health.