Nutritional and metabolic programming during the first thousand days of life

Abstract

The latest scientific acquisitions are demonstrating what has already been hypothesized for more than twenty years about the development of the state of health/illness of individuals. Indeed, certain stimuli, if applied to a sensible phase of development, are able to modify, through epigenetic mechanisms, gene expression of DNA, resulting in adaptive modifications of phenotype to the environment, which may reflect negatively on the health of every individual. This concept, applied to nutrition, has opened up important prospects for research in this area. The nutritional history of an individual, linked to the development of a healthy state, would begin very early. In fact, since the pregnancy and for the next two years (for a total of about 1000 days), the maternal eating habits, the type of breastfeeding and then the main stages of nutrition in the evolutionary phase represent those sensitive moments, essential for the development of important endocrine, metabolic, immunological alterations, better known as metabolic syndrome. This condition would represent the physiopathogenetic basis for explaining a series of disorders, known as non communicable diseases (NCDs) such as obesity, diabetes, hypertension, cardiovascolar disease and all those conditions that today affect the health of most industrialized countries and through the years are emerging especially in developing countries (South America, Asia), where new environmental conditions and increased food availability are changing food habits, with far-reaching public health impacts. This paper analyzes these new nutritional perspectives and the main implications of what has been termed the 1000-day theory.

Early overnutrition sensitizes the growth hormone axis to the impact of diet-induced obesity via sex-divergent mechanisms

“…The prevalence of obesity and its related metabolic disorders, such as type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular disease, has increased dramatically during the last decades worldwide, representing an enormous health and economic burden. Evidence from numerous studies has documented that nutritional alterations during early stages of development may contribute to enhance the obesity rates and the occurrence of obesity-related comorbidities 38,39 . Adverse metabolic conditions during the perinatal stage likely disrupt proper development of key neurohormonal systems due to the relative plasticity of some of their components during these early periods of development; phenomena that may have long-term consequences in energy homeostasis and modify the response to later metabolic challenges.…”

Implication of Modern Complementary Foods in Critical Period for Child Health Programming

“…В настоящее время известно, что количественные и качественные особенности питания беременной женщины, вид вскармливания и диетический рацион ребенка первых двух лет жизни могут приводить к изменениям метаболизма и эндокринного статуса в дальнейшем [5]. Кроме того, характер вскармливания новорожденного и младенца в период введения продуктов прикорма вне «окна толерантности» могут существенно увеличивать антигенную сенсибилизирующую нагрузку на ребенка и влиять на последующие отклонения иммунного ответа по Th1/Th2 пути, увеличивая риск формирования атопического статуса, особенно у детей из группы риска [6,7].…”

“…Вместе с тем в этот же период жизни у детей групп риска по развитию аллергии при становлении иммунного ответа возможно программирование иммунных отклонений с преобладанием одной из субпопуляций -Th1 или Th2. Преобладание цитокинового профиля Th2 (гиперпродукция интерлейкинов 4,5, 13 и др.) предполагает возможность стойкого формирования атопического статуса ребенка в дальнейшем.…”

Maternal and Early Postnatal Diet Supplemented with Conjugated Linoleic Acid Isomers Affect Lipid Profile in Hearts of Offspring Rats with Mammary Tumors

“…The idea of linking early life environmental factors with later health status, developed in the 1980s by David Baker, has recently become known as "developmental origins of health and disease" (DOHaD) [14] or "developmental programming" [15]. The definition of "programming" implies that exposure to a particular stimulus acting during critical phases of development (embryonic and fetal life) introduces long-term developmental, physiological and metabolic changes in the main tissues and organs [16,17]. During gestation, diet is considered to be the most important factor affecting fetal development and metabolism [18].…”