22 July 2004
Gain wealth, lose health
Many plants and animals develop in qualitatively different ways depending on cues they receive from the environment in early life. Their adult form and behaviour are adapted to conditions predicted by the information that sent them down a particular track. Sometimes the predictions are wrong. Bateson et al. apply this model to the health histories of humans, and find that individuals born small and adapted to a thrifty environment are especially likely to suffer, among other things, obesity and heart disease later in life if they grow up in an affluent environment. If that interpretation is correct, the public health implications are considerable. By working out the biology involved, it should be possible to develop interventions to promote health during childhood without compromising it in later life.
Developmental plasticity and human health
PATRICK BATESON, DAVID BARKER, TIMOTHY CLUTTON-BROCK,
DEBAL DEB, BRUNO D'UDINE, ROBERT A. FOLEY, PETER GLUCKMAN, KEITH GODFREY,
TOM KIRKWOOD, MARTA MIRAZ�N LAHR, JOHN MCNAMARA, NEIL B. METCALFE, PATRICIA
MONAGHAN, HAMISH G. SPENCER & SONIA E. SULTAN
Nature 430, 419–421 (2004); doi:10.1038/nature02725
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