Endocrine Abstracts

Non-genetic inheritance allows the environmental history of an individual to influence the next generation. This form of inheritance is well documented in worms, fruit-flies and plants. Observational evidence in mammals suggests two forms of non-genetic transgenerational effects; ‘developmental programming’ in response to early life exposures and germ-line transmission of an environmentally induced change i.e. ‘epigenetic inheritance’. However, at present t...

There is clear evidence from epidemiological studies that adverse conditions during pregnancy can programme changes in offspring which lead to increased risk of developing type two diabetes and obesity, two diseases associated with metabolic syndrome. Whilst earlier investigations focused on undernutrition in relation to famine, it is also relevant in the developed world to consider how dieting may programme lasting changes in the offspring.In models of ...

Epidemiologic studies suggest that adult disease risk may be associated with adverse environmental conditions early in development but the biological mechanisms behind these relations are unclear.Our group used the circumstances of the Dutch famine of 1944–1945 to evaluate epigenetic changes in men and women with prenatal famine exposure during the Second World War. Study subjects were followed from birth to age ∼58 years. To minimize potentia...