Perinatal nutritional programming of health and metabolic adult disease

Data indicate that perinatal nutritional insults not onlyhave short-term consequences on the growth velocity of the fetus/neonate but also sensitize to the development of metabolic adult diseases. The pathophysiological mechanisms involved in the so-called "Developmental Origin of Health and Adult Diseases" are still largely unknown and depend on the type of alteration (nutritional, psychological, endocrine disruptors, etc.), its intensity and duration, species, sex and the time during which it is applied. Perinatal stress, via disturbances of both hypothalamo-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis and sympathoadrenal-system (SAS), as well as brain-adipose axis and pancreas alterations could play a crucial role. Interestingly, it has been demonstrated that perinatal insults may be transmitted transgenerationally, suggesting that these long-term consequences may be inherited via epigenetic mechanisms. Finally, since the placenta has been demonstrated to be sensitive to perinatal nutritional manipulations, the identification of placental markers may thus represent an important new avenue to identify the more susceptible babies prone to developing metabolic diseases.