Environmental Exposures around Conception: Developmental Pathways Leading to Lifetime Disease Risk

Tom P. Fleming, Congshan Sun, Oleg Denisenko, Laura Caetano, Anan Aljahdali, Joanna M. Gould and Pooja Khurana
Additional contact information
Tom P. Fleming: Biological Sciences, Southampton General Hospital, University of Southampton, Southampton SO16 6YD, UK
Congshan Sun: Departments of Neurology and Neuroscience, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD 21205, USA
Oleg Denisenko: Department of Medicine, University of Washington, 850 Republican St., Rm 242, Seattle, WA 98109, USA
Laura Caetano: Biological Sciences, Southampton General Hospital, University of Southampton, Southampton SO16 6YD, UK
Anan Aljahdali: Biological Sciences, Southampton General Hospital, University of Southampton, Southampton SO16 6YD, UK
Joanna M. Gould: Clinical Neurosciences and Psychiatry, Clinical and Experimental Sciences, Faculty of Medicine, University of Southampton, Southampton SO16 6YD, UK
Pooja Khurana: Biological Sciences, Southampton General Hospital, University of Southampton, Southampton SO16 6YD, UK

IJERPH, 2021, vol. 18, issue 17, 1-19

Abstract: Environment around conception can influence the developmental programme with lasting effects on gestational and postnatal phenotype and with consequences for adult health and disease risk. Peri-conception exposure comprises a crucial part of the ‘Developmental Origins of Health and Disease’ (DOHaD) concept. In this review, we consider the effects of maternal undernutrition experienced during the peri-conception period in select human models and in a mouse experimental model of protein restriction. Human datasets indicate that macronutrient deprivation around conception affect the epigenome, with enduring effects on cardiometabolic and neurological health. The mouse model, comprising maternal low protein diet exclusively during the peri-conception period, has revealed a stepwise progression in altered developmental programming following induction through maternal metabolite deficiency. This progression includes differential effects in extra-embryonic and embryonic cell lineages and tissues, leading to maladaptation in the growth trajectory and increased chronic disease comorbidities. The timeline embraces an array of mechanisms across nutrient sensing and signalling, cellular, metabolic, epigenetic and physiological processes with a coordinating role for mTORC1 signalling proposed. Early embryos appear active participants in environmental sensing to optimise the developmental programme for survival but with the trade-off of later disease. Similar adverse health outcomes may derive from other peri-conception environmental experiences, including maternal overnutrition, micronutrient availability, pollutant exposure and assisted reproductive treatments (ART) and support the need for preconception health before pregnancy.

Keywords: DOHaD; peri-conception; blastocyst; maternal undernutrition; low protein diet; trophectoderm; primitive endoderm; uterine fluid; mTORC1; ribosome biogenesis (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

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