Hostname: page-component-76fb5796d-45l2p Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-26T04:18:01.969Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

The fetal origins of adult disease

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  10 October 2008

DJP Barker
DJP Barker*
Affiliation:
MRC Environmental Epidemiology Unit, Southampton.
*
Professor DJP Barker MD, PhD, FRCP, FRCOG, Director, MRC Environmental Epidemiology Unit, Southampton General Hospital, Southampton SO9 4XY, UK.
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

Recent studies have shown that babies who are small for dates at birth, or who fail to grow in infancy, have, in adult life, raised blood pressure, impaired glucose tolerance, abnormal serum lipids, raised fibrinogen and high death rates from coronary disease, stroke and obstructive lung disease. This has led to the hypothesis that these diseases are ‘programmed’ in utero in response to an adverse environment.

Type
Articles
Information
Fetal and Maternal Medicine Review , Volume 6 , Issue 2 , May 1994 , pp. 71 - 80
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1994

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

1Barker, DJP. Fetal and infant origins of adult disease. London: British Medical Journal, 1992.Google Scholar
2Barraclough, CA. Production of anovulatory, sterile rats by single injections of testosterone propionate. Endocrinology 1961; 68: 62–67.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
3Winick, M, Noble, A. Cellular response in rats during malnutrition at various ages. J Nutr 1966; 89: 300–306.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
4Stephens, DN. Growth and the development of dietary obesity in adulthood of rats which have been undernourished during development. Br J Nutr 1980; 44: 215–27.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
5Hahn, P. Effect of litter size on plasma cholesterol and insulin and some liver and adipose tissue enzymes in adult rodents. J Nutr 1984; 114: 1231–34.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
6Mott, GE, Lewis, DS, McGill, HC. Programming of cholesterol metabolism by breast or formula feeding. In: Bock, GR, Whelan, J, eds. The childhood environment and adult disease. Chichester: Wiley, 1991: 56–76.Google Scholar
7Widdowson, EM, McCance, RA. A review: new thoughts on growth. Pediatr Res 1975; 9: 154–56.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
8Widdowson, EM. Intra-uterine growth retardation in the pig. Biol Neonate 1971; 19: 329–40.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
9Milner, RDG. Mechanisms of overgrowth. In: Sharp, F, Fraser, RB, Milner, RDG, eds, Fetal growth. Proceedings of the 20th study group of the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists. London: Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists, 1989: 139–48.Google Scholar
10Hammond, J, Appleton, AB. Growth and the development of mutton qualities in the sheep. Edinburgh: Oliver and Boyd, 1932.Google Scholar
11Hellerström, C, Swenne, I, Andersson, A. Islet cell replication and diabetes. In: Lefebvre, PJ, Pipeleers, DG, eds, The pathology of the endocrine pancreas in diabetes. Heidelberg: Springer, 1988: 141–70.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
12Hinchliffe, SA, Lynch, MRJ, Sargent, PH, Howard, CV, Van Velzen, D. The effect of intrauterine growth retardation on the development of renal nephrons. Br J Obstet Gynaecol 1992; 99: 296–301.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
13McCance, RA, Widdowson, EM. The determinants of growth and form. Proc R Soc Lond (Biol) 1974; 185: 1–17.Google ScholarPubMed
14Widdowson, EM, McCance, RA. The effect of finite periods of undernutrition at different ages on the composition and subsequent development of the rat. Proc R Soc Lond (Biol) 1963; 158: 329–42.Google ScholarPubMed
15Barker, DJP, Osmond, C. Infant mortality, childhood nutrition, and ischaemic heart disease in England and Wales. Lancet 1986; i: 1077–81.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
16Barker, DJP, Osmond, C, Law, C. The intra-uterine and early postnatal origins of cardiovascular disease and chronic bronchitis. J Epidemiol Community Health 1989; 43: 237–40.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
17Osmond, C, Barker, DJP, Winter, PD, Fall, CHD, Simmonds, SJ. Early growth and death from cardiovascular disease in women. Br Med J 1993; 307: 1519–24.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
18Barker, DJ, Winter, PD, Osmond, C, Margetts, B, Simmonds, SJ. Weight in infancy and death from ischaemic heart disease. Lancet 1989; ii: 577–80.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
19Barker, DJ, Osmond, C, Simmonds, SJ, Wield, GA. The relation of head circumference and thinness at birth to death from cardiovascular disease in adult life. Br Med J 1993; 306: 422–26.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
20Hales, CN, Barker, DJ, Clark, PM, Cox, LJ, Fall, C, Osmond, C et al. Fetal and infant growth and impaired glucose tolerance at age 64 years. Br Med J 1991; 303: 1019–22.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
21Barker, DJ, Hales, CN, Fall, CH, Osmond, C, Phipps, K, Clark, PM. Type 2 (non-insulin-dependent) diabetes mellitus, hypertension and hyperlipidaemia (syndrome X): relation to reduced fetal growth. Diabetologia 1993; 36: 62–67.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
22Barker, DJ, Bull, AR, Osmond, C, Simmonds, SJ. Fetal and placental size and risk of hypertension in adult life. Br Med J 1990; 301: 259–62.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
23Law, CM, de Swiet, M, Osmond, C, Fayers, PM, Barker, DJ, Cruddas, AM et al. Initiation of hypertension in utero and its amplification throughout life. Br Med J 1993; 306: 24–27.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
24Barker, DJP, Godfrey, KM, Osmond, C, Bull, A. The relation of fetal length, ponderal index and head circumference to blood pressure and the risk of hypertension in adult life. Paediatr Perinat Epidemiol 1992; 6: 35–44.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
25Folkow, B. Cardiovascular structural adaptation: its role in the initiation and maintenance of primary hypertension. Clin Sci 1978; 55: 3–22S.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
26Edwards, CRW, Benediktsson, R, Lindsay, RS, Seckl, JR. Dysfunction of placental glucocorticoid barrier: link between fetal environment and adult hypertension? Lancet 1993; 341: 355–57.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
27Berry, C. Hypertension and arterial development: long-term considerations. Br Heart J 1978; 40: 709–17.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
28Godfrey, KM, Redman, CWG, Barker, DJP, Osmond, C. The effect of maternal anaemia and iron deficiency on the ratio of fetal weight to placental weight. Br J Obstet Gynaecol 1991; 98: 886–91.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
29Law, CM, Barker, DJ, Bull, AR, Osmond, C. Maternal and fetal influences on blood pressure. Arch Dis Child 1991; 66: 1291–95.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
30Fowden, AL. The role of insulin in prenatal growth. J Dev Physiol 1989; 12: 173–82.Google ScholarPubMed
31Phipps, K, Barker, DJ, Hales, CN, Fall, CH, Osmond, C, Clark, PM. Fetal growth and impaired glucose tolerance in men and women. Diabetologia 1993; 36: 225–28.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
32DeFronzo, RA. The triumvirate: beta cell, muscle, liver. A collusion responsible for NIDDM. Diabetes 1988; 37: 667–87.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
33Van Assche, FA, DePrins, F, Aerts, L, Verjans, M. The endocrine pancreas in small-for-dates infants. Br J Obstet Gynaecol 1977; 84: 751–53.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
34Swenne, I, Crace, CJ, Milner, RDG. Persistent impairment of insulin secretory response to glucose in adult rats after limited periods of protein-calorie malnutrition early in life. Diabetes 1987; 36: 454–58.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
35Phillips, DIW, Barker, DJP, Hales, CN, Hirst, S, Osmond, C. Thinness at birth and insulin resistance in adult life. Diabetologia 1994; 37: 150–54.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
36Barker, DJ, Meade, TW, Fall, CH, Lee, A, Osmond, C, Phipps, K et al. Relation of fetal and infant growth to plasma fibrinogen and factor VII concentrations in adult life. Br Med J 1992; 304: 148–52.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
37Barker, DJP, Martyn, CN, Osmond, C, Hales, CN, Fall, CHD. Growth in utero and serum cholesterol concentrations in adult life. Br Med J 1993; 307: 1524–27.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
38Barker, DJ, Gluckman, PD, Godfrey, KM, Harding, JE, Owens, JA, Robinson, JS. Fetal nutrition and cardiovascular disease in adult life. Lancet 1993; 341: 938–41.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
39Rosen, T, Bengtsson, BA. Premature mortality due to cardiac disease in hypopituitarism. Lancet 1990; 336: 285–88.CrossRefGoogle Scholar