The Power of Programming - International Conference on Developmental Origins of Health and Disease

The ways in which epigenetic modifications fix the effects of early environmental events, ensuring sustained responses to transient stimuli, which result into modified gene expression patterns and phenotypes later in life, is a topic of considerable interest. Increasing numbers of genome-wide studies based on high-throughput technologies and focusing on humans and mice have revealed additional complexity in epigenetic processes, highlighting the importance of stage-, sex-, and cell-specific epigenetic landscapes, and of crosstalk between the different epigenetic marks. This paper focuses on recently discovered mechanisms and calls into question prevailing views about the dynamics, positions and functions of relevant epigenetic marks. Animal models, including mice, rats, sheep, pigs and rabbits, remain a vital tool for studying the influence of early nutritional events on adult health and disease. In recent months, a number of studies focusing on the Developmental Origin of Health and Disease (DOHaD) and metabolic programming have identified links between early nutrition, epigenetic processes, and long-term illness. They have demonstrated the existence of an on-going self-propagating epigenetic cycle, of metabolic memories and ageing processes. However most epigenetic studies have only addressed the long-term effects on a small number of epigenetic marks, at the global or individual gene level, of environmental stressors in humans and animal models. Despite recent progress, we are still far from understanding how, when and where environmental stressors disturb key epigenetic mechanisms. Thus identifying the original key marks and their changes throughout development, during an individual’s lifetime or over several generations, remains a challenging issue.

Concluding remarks by Prof. Berthold Koletzko, meeting president and EARNEST co-ordinator

Differences in nutritional experience during sensitive periods in early life, both before and after birth, can programme a person’s future development, metabolism and health. Better scientific understanding of Early Nutrition Programming holds enormous potential for implementing preventive strategies to enhance the long-term health, well-being and performance of people. This could not only reduce costs of health care and social services, but could as well enhance wealth of societies. The Early Nutrition Programming Project brings together a multi-disciplinary team of international scientists and leaders in key areas of the early nutrition programming field from 40 major research centres across 16 European countries. The project with a total budget of 16.5 million Euros is funded by the EC under the Sixth Framework Programme for Research and Technical Development and is co-ordinated by the Children’s Hospital at Ludwig-Maximilians-University of Munich. The integrated programme of work combines experimental studies in humans, prospective observational studies and mechanistic animal work including physiological studies and cell culture models, with molecular biology techniques. The project started in 2005 and will run to October 2010. After the end of the project, the Early Nutrition Academy (www.early-nutrition.org) will continue to serve as a platform for exchange of information, scientific collaboration and training activities in the area of programming. This presentation will highlight some of the scientific results and achievements and the efforts of the Early Nutrition Programming Project in respect to training and dissemination.

Welcoming address from the Bavarian State Ministry of Science, Research and the Arts