The impact of Fast Food on the embryonic development and its offspring

Abstract

The maternal in utero environment influences embryonic development and that of the offspring. The concept of developmental programming, or developmental causes of health and disease in adulthood, is based on the hypothesis that maternal lifestyle and exposure to diverse environmental stimuli during pregnancy can lead to epigenetic modifications (alterations of histone and DNA methylation patterns) and thus long-term alterations of the genome. Certain maternal dietary patterns, such as the consumption of high-fat unhealthy diets, are thereby associated with an increased risk of developing chronic metabolic diseases such as obesity and type 2 diabetes mellitus in the later adulthood of the offspring. The way in which certain dietary metabolites influence the epigenome of the embryo and future generations, and whether these modifications are permanent or reversible, remains to be investigated.