Elsevier

The Lancet

Volume 341, Issue 8850, 10 April 1993, Pages 938-941
The Lancet

REVIEW ARTICLE
Fetal nutrition and cardiovascular disease in adult life

https://doi.org/10.1016/0140-6736(93)91224-AGet rights and content

Abstract

Babies who are small at birth or during infancy have increased rates of cardiovascular disease and non-insulin-dependent diabetes as adults. Some of these babies have low birthweights, some are small in relation to the size of their placentas, some are thin at birth, and some are short at birth and fail to gain weight in infancy. This paper shows how fetal undernutrition at different stages of gestation can be linked to these patterns of early growth. The fetuses' adaptations to undernutrition are associated with changes in the concentrations of fetal and placental hormones. Persisting changes in the levels of hormone secretion, and in the sensitivity of tissues to them, may link fetal undernutrition with abnormal structure, function, and disease in adult life.

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