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Maternal diet: a modulator for epigenomic regulation during development in nonhuman primates and humans

International Journal of Obesity Supplements volume 2, pages S14–S18 (2012)Cite this article

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Abstract

The importance of diet in health and disease has been well characterized in the past decades. Although the earlier focus of diet research was in the context of undernutrition and the importance of adequate nutrient intake to prevent malnutrition, in the current era of epidemic obesity the focus of our efforts has evolved toward understanding the effects of excess caloric intake. The current surge in childhood obesity rates suggests a correlation of maternal metabolic syndrome and obesity with programming of the fetal epigenome for metabolic diseases later in life. Alterations of the fetal genome, epigenome and metabolome have been well documented in cases of maternal malnutrition, including both overnutrition and undernutrition. It is of great interest and importance to understand how these divergent maternal factors regulate/program the fetus for metabolic diseases, and we and others have observed that epigenetic modifications to the fetal and placental epigenome accompany these reprogramming events. The following review summarizes recent studies on the effects of maternal diet and obesity on fetal epigenetics contributing to adult diseases later in life by taking advantage of state-of-the-art genomic, epigenomic and metagenomic techniques in nonhuman primate model systems.

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by the NIH Director New Innovator Pioneer Award DP21DP2OD001500-01 (KAT) and Burroughs Welcome Fund Preterm Birth Initiative 1008819.01. We thank the members of the Aagaard Lab for their helpful discussions regarding the manuscript, including Dr Melissa Suter, Dr Min Hu, Ms Lori Showalter, Ms Cynthia Shope and Dr Aishe Chen.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, TX, USA

    R S Ganu, K Collins & K M Aagaard

  2. Department of Human and Molecular Genetics, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, TX, USA

    R A Harris & K M Aagaard

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  1. R S Ganu
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Correspondence to K M Aagaard.

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This article was published as part of a supplement funded with an unrestricted educational contribution from Desjardins Sécurité Financière.

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Ganu, R., Harris, R., Collins, K. et al. Maternal diet: a modulator for epigenomic regulation during development in nonhuman primates and humans. Int J Obes Supp 2 (Suppl 2), S14–S18 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1038/ijosup.2012.16

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