Developmental origins of health and disease: reducing the burden of chronic disease in the next generation
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* Corresponding author: Murray D Mitchell murray.mitchell@uq.edu.au
1 Liggins Institute, The University of Auckland, Private Bag 92019, Auckland 1142, New Zealand
2 National Research Centre for Growth and Development, The University of Auckland, Private Bag 92019, Auckland 1142, New Zealand
3 Centre for Developmental Origins of Health and Disease, University of Southampton, Southampton SO16 5YA, UK
4 UQ Centre for Clinical Research, Building 71/198, Royal Brisbane and Women's Hospital Campus, Brisbane, Queensland 4072, Australia
Genome Medicine 2010, 2:14 doi:10.1186/gm135
Published: 24 February 2010Abstract
Despite a wealth of underpinning experimental support, there has been considerable resistance to the concept that environmental factors acting early in life (usually in fetal life) have profound effects on vulnerability to disease later in life, often in adulthood. This has resulted in an unwillingness among public health decision makers to implement relatively simple approaches, based upon an understanding of developmental plasticity and intergenerational influences, to reducing the burden of disease particularly in low socioeconomic groups.