Advances in research into gamete and embryo-fetal origins of adult diseases

作     者：Kexin Zou Guolian Ding Hefeng Huang 

作者机构：The International Peace Maternity and Child Health Hospital School of Medicine Shanghai Jiao Tong University Institute of Embryo-Fetal Original Adult Disease School of Medicine Shanghai Jiao Tong University 

出 版 物：《Science China(Life Sciences)》 (中国科学（生命科学英文版）)

年 卷 期：2019年第62卷第3期

页      面：360-368页

核心收录：

学科分类：0710[理学-生物学] 07[理学] 09[农学] 

基　　金：supported by Special Fund for the National Key Research and Development Plan (2017YFC1001303) National Natural Science Foundation of China (81490742 and 31571556) 

主　　题：gamete embryo acquired inheritance intergenerational/transgenerational transmission epigenetic modification 

摘      要：The fetal and infant origins of adult disease hypothesis proposed that the roots of adult chronic disease lie in the effects of adverse environments in fetal life and early infancy. In addition to the fetal period, fertilization and early embryonic stages, the critical time windows of epigenetic reprogramming, rapid cell differentiation and organogenesis, are the most sensitive stages to environmental disturbances. Compared with embryo and fetal development, gametogenesis and maturation take decades and are more vulnerable to potential damage for a longer exposure period. Therefore, we should shift the focus of adult disease occurrence and pathogenesis further back to gametogenesis and embryonic development events, which may result in intergenerational, even transgenerational, epigenetic re-programming with transmission of adverse traits and characteristics to offspring. Here, we focus on the research progress relating to diseases that originated from events in the gametes and early embryos and the potential epigenetic mechanisms involved.