Nature and Nurture in the Early-Life Origins of Metabolic Syndrome

Title:Nature and Nurture in the Early-Life Origins of Metabolic Syndrome

Volume: 17 Issue: 7

Author(s): Antonio Gonzalez-Bulnes, Susana Astiz, Cristina Ovilo, Consolacion Garcia-Contreras and Marta Vazquez-Gomez

Affiliation:

Keywords: Developmental-programming, endocrine-disrupting-chemicals, epigenetics, lifestyle, metabolic-syndrome, nutrition, obesogenics, transgenerational-programming.

Abstract: The combination of genetic background together with food excess and lack of exercise has become the cornerstone of metabolic disorders associated to lifestyle. The scenario is furthermore reinforced by their interaction with other environmental factors (stress, sleeping patterns, education, culture, rural versus urban locations, and xenobiotics, among others) inducing epigenetic changes in the exposed individuals. The immediate consequence is the development of further alterations like obesity and metabolic syndrome, and other adverse health conditions (type-2 diabetes, cardiovascular diseases, cancer, reproductive, immune and neurological disorders). Thus, having in mind the impact of the metabolic syndrome on the worldwide public health, the present review affords the relative roles and the interrelationships of nature (genetic predisposition to metabolic syndrome) and nurture (lifestyle and environmental effects causing epigenetic changes), on the establishment of the metabolic disorders in women; disorders that may evolve to metabolic syndrome prior or during pregnancy and may be transmitted to their descendants.

Cite this article as:

Gonzalez-Bulnes Antonio, Astiz Susana, Ovilo Cristina, Garcia-Contreras Consolacion and Vazquez-Gomez Marta, Nature and Nurture in the Early-Life Origins of Metabolic Syndrome, Current Pharmaceutical Biotechnology 2016; 17 (7) . https://dx.doi.org/10.2174/1389201017666160301103835