Submission Number: PET-4-99-109

Abstract Number: 1

LIFE IN THE WOMB: THE ORIGIN OF HEALTH AND DISEASE.

Peter W Nathanielsz

Laboratory for Pregnancy and Newborn Research, College of Veterinary Medicine, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY 14853-6401 ¹

Abstract:
The fetal origins of adult disease is a concept that is firmly based on epidemiology data, clinical research and animal studies. Fetal programming is the term applied to long-term, often permanent change in structure and function that results from sub-optimal intra-uterine conditions. The complex balance between how gene function is regulated both by the nuclear genetic program and by the external environment will determine organogenesis during critical periods of development. Programming has been shown to alter hepatic, pancreatic, neural, reproductive, and cardiovascular development. This presentation will seek to highlight 10 major principles of programming: 1) during development there are critical periods of vulnerability to suboptimal conditions; 2) programming has permanent effects that alter later life responses and modify susceptibility to disease; 3) fetal development is activity dependent and normal activity in utero is a critical feature in determining each subsequent step in development; 4) programming involves structural changes in development of organs such as the liver; 5) the placenta plays a key role in programming; 6) although the fetus can compensate for adverse conditions in utero such compensation may carry a long term price; 7) interventions that move development off the trajectory which the fetus chooses to develop in utero to adapt to and survive in the existing prenatal conditions, may have their own adverse and unwanted effects postnatally; 8) cellular mechanisms during fetal development often differ from adult processes; 9) effects of programming may pass across generations from mother to daughter to daughter by mechanisms that do not involve permanent changes in the gametes; 10) programming has different effects in males and females. .

Keywords: fetus, programming

This abstract is being presented at: 10:30 AM in session:
Minisymposium IV: FETAL ORIGINS OF ADULT DISEASES