HSS 4102 Lecture Notes - Lecture 13: Birth Weight, Prenatal Development, Human Chorionic Gonadotropin
11 Dec 2017
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Lecture 13: the developmental origin of adult diseases. Intrinsic bad genes: traumatic bad luck. They thought genetics was the key to diseases like hypertension, diabetes and cvd but now we know the environment plays a role. Prenatal development and epigenetics play an important role. The fetus (trophoblast cells) induces changes in the structure and physiology of the uterus. The hormones hcg and progesterone maintain the lining of the uterus. The fetus also blocks maternal immune responses to itself. Placenta provides nutrients and oxygen to the fetus. Mother also provides fetus with instructions about how to develop phenotypes that will persist into the expected environment. Mother"s diet and hormonal milieu provide information to fetus. Diseases such as hypertension, diabetes, and obesity may result because of a mismatch. In humans, birth weight is determined more by the mother than the father: the maternal environment contains cues that can override genetic information (ex.
