Lifestyle, Pregnancy and Epigenetic Effects

Abstract

Rapidly growing evidences link maternal lifestyle and prenatal factors with serious health consequences and diseases later in life. Extensive epidemiological studies have identified a number of factors such as diet, stress, gestational diabetes, exposure to tobacco and alcohol during gestation as influencing normal fetal development. In light of recent discoveries, epigenetic mechanisms such as alteration of DNA methylation, chromatin modifications and modulation of gene expression during gestation are believed to possibly account for various types of plasticity such as neural tube defects, autism spectrum disorder, congenital heart defects, oral clefts, allergies and cancer. The purpose of this article is to review a number of published studies to fill the gap in our understanding of how maternal lifestyle and intrauterine environment influence molecular modifications in the offspring, with an emphasis on epigenetic alterations. To support these associations, we highlighted laboratory studies of rodents and epidemiological studies of human based on sampling population cohorts.

Keywords: :

• DNA methylation
• epigenetics
• lifestyle
• pregnancy

Acknowledgement

The authors acknowledge M Marlow for help with editorial corrections with the manuscript. S Barua wrote the manuscript; MA Junaid critically revised the manuscript. Both the authors read and approved the final manuscript.

Financial & competing interests disclosure

Financial support from the March of Dimes Research Foundation (12-FY12–170) and the New York State Office for People With Developmental Disabilities is gratefully acknowledged. The authors have no other relevant affiliations or financial involvement with any organization or entity with a financial interest in or financial conflict with the subject matter or materials discussed in the manuscript apart from those disclosed.

No writing assistance was utilized in the production of this manuscript.

Additional information

Funding

Financial support from the March of Dimes Research Foundation (12-FY12-170) and the New York State Office for People With Developmental Disabilities is gratefully acknowledged. The authors have no other relevant affiliations or financial involvement with any organization or entity with a financial interest in or financial conflict with the subject matter or materials discussed in the manuscript apart from those disclosed. No writing assistance was utilized in the production of this manuscript.