The role of developmental plasticity and epigenetics in human health

Gluckman, Peter D.; Hanson, Mark A.; Low, Felicia M.

doi:10.1002/bdrc.20198

Cited by 224 publications

(136 citation statements)

References 47 publications

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“…On this hypothesis, the fetus predicts a calorie-poor environment and uses its inherent phenotypic plasticity to respond to the prediction. Gluckman et al (2005) and Gluckman et al (2011) both argue that when this prediction turns out to be incorrect-i.e. when the environment turns out to be calorie-rich-a developmental mismatch may arise which causes the impaired glucose tolerance and insulin insensitivity already mentioned.…”

Section: Cofnas's Teleofunctional Accountmentioning

confidence: 99%

Stranger in a strange land: an optimal-environments account of evolutionary mismatch

Morris

2018

Synthese

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In evolutionary medicine, researchers characterize some outcomes as evolutionary mismatch. Mismatch problems arise as the result of organisms living in environments to which they are poorly adapted, typically as the result of some rapid environmental change. Depression, anxiety, obesity, myopia, insomnia, breast cancer, dental problems, and numerous other negative health outcomes have all been characterized as mismatch problems. The exact nature of evolutionary mismatch itself is unclear, however. This leads to a lack of clarity about the sorts of problems that evolutionary mismatch can actually explain. Resolving this challenge is important not only for the evolutionary health literature, but also because the notion of evolutionary mismatch involves central concepts in evolutionary biology: fitness, evolution in changing environments, and so forth.In this paper, I examine two characterizations of mismatch currently in the literature. I propose that we conceptualize mismatch as a relation between an optimal environment and an actual environment. Given an organism and its particular physiology, the optimal environment is the environment in which the organism's fitness is maximized: in other words, the optimal environment is that in which the organism's fitness is as high as it can possibly be. The actual environment is the environment in which the organism actually finds itself. To the extent that there is a discordance between the organism's actual and optimal environments, there is an evolutionary mismatch. In the paper, I show that this account of mismatch gives us the right result when other accounts fail, and provides useful targets for investigation.

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Section: Cofnas's Teleofunctional Accountmentioning

confidence: 99%

Stranger in a strange land: an optimal-environments account of evolutionary mismatch

Morris

2018

Synthese

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“…По мнению P. Gluckman и соавт., ребенок, родившийся на фоне тяжело протекавшей беременности, прогнози-рует неблагополучное развитие после рождения, когда организм выстраивает стратегию подготовки к выжи-ванию: в частности, маленький рост, ранний пубертат, нарушения гормональной оси, изменение поведения, увеличение инсулинорезистентности, склонность к нако-плению жировой ткани [12].…”

Section: причины развития ожиренияunclassified

Obesity in Children: New Prevention Concepts and Approaches. Literature Review

Нетребенко¹,

Ukraintsev²,

Мельникова³

2017

Vopr. sovr. pediatr.

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“…According to Gluckman et al [11], genetic predisposition associated with environmental stimuli during development influences adaptive responses to the environment and increases susceptibility to disease in adulthood. Thus, phenotypic plasticity represents organisms' responses to different environmental conditions that generate a series of distinct phenotypes (morphological or physiological states) potentially expressed by a genotype [11]. To adjust cell processes according to environmental changes, epigenetic programming allows hereditary and reversible change of gene expression without changing the DNA sequence [12].…”

Section: Critical Development Period and Phenotypic Plasticitymentioning

confidence: 99%

Perinatal serotonergic activity: A decisive factor in the control of food intake

et al. 2017

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The serotoninergic system controls key events related to proper nervous system development. The neurotransmitter serotonin and the serotonin transporter are critical for this control. Availability of these components is minutely regulated during the development period, and the environment may affect their action on the nervous system. Environmental factors such as undernutrition and selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors may increase the availability of serotonin in the synaptic cleft and change its anorectic action. The physiological responses promoted by serotonin on intake control decrease when requested by acute stimuli or stress, demonstrating that animals or individuals develop adaptations in response to the environmental insults they experience during the development period. Diseases, such as anxiety and obesity, appear to be associated with the body’s response to stress or stimulus, and require greater serotonergic system action. These findings demonstrate the importance of the level of serotonin in the perinatal period to the development of molecular and morphological aspects of food intake control, and its decisive role in understanding the possible environmental factors that cause diseases in adulthood.

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The role of developmental plasticity and epigenetics in human health

Cited by 224 publications

References 47 publications

Stranger in a strange land: an optimal-environments account of evolutionary mismatch

Stranger in a strange land: an optimal-environments account of evolutionary mismatch

Obesity in Children: New Prevention Concepts and Approaches. Literature Review

Perinatal serotonergic activity: A decisive factor in the control of food intake

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