Linking nutrition to long-term health: Epigenetic mechanisms

Burton, Mark, Godfrey, Keith and Lillycrop, Karen (2022) Linking nutrition to long-term health: Epigenetic mechanisms. In, Saavedra, Jose M. and Dattilo, Anne M. (eds.) Early Nutrition and Long-Term Health: Mechanisms, Consequences, and Opportunities, Second Edition. Second ed. Woodhead Publishing, 257 - 277. (doi:10.1016/b978-0-12-824389-3.00017-9).

Abstract

Nutritional intake during key developmental windows in early life has increasingly been linked to long-term health trajectories and the risk of non-communicable disease. The mechanisms by which early-life environment can influence later phenotypes and long-term disease risk has been suggested to include epigenetic processes. Epigenetic processes modulate gene expression without a change in the DNA nucleotide sequence, determining when and where a gene is expressed. Both maternal and paternal diet have been shown to induce epigenetic changes in the offspring, leading to changes in gene expression that can persist throughout the life course and influence later disease susceptibility. This has led in recent years to the identification of epigenetic markers for lifestyle-related disease risk being investigated as potential therapeutic biomarkers. Elucidation of such modifiable epigenetic processes linked to non-communicable disease risk may enable early intervention strategies using targeted approaches through nutrition or pharmacological epigenetic modifiers to improve long-term health.

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Contributors

Author: Keith Godfrey

Author: Karen Lillycrop

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