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DIABETES, NUTRITION, METABOLISM & MEDICARE
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LASER, OPTICS AND PHOTONICS
World Conference on
Obesity Summit 2018 & Diabetes Conference 2018 & Laser Photonics Conference 2018
Biomedical Research
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ISSN: 0976-1683
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Volume 29
Biomed Res 2018, Volume 29 | DOI: 10.4066/biomedicalresearch-C7-020
PRE-NATAL EPIGENETIC INFLUENCES ON ACUTE AND CHRONIC DISEASES
LATER IN LIFE, SUCH AS CANCER: GLOBAL HEALTH CRISES RESULTING
FROM A COLLISION OF BIOLOGICAL AND CULTURAL EVOLUTION
James E Trosko
Michigan State University, USA
B
etter understanding of the complex factors leading to human diseases will be necessary for both long term prevention and for
managing short and long-term health problems. The underlying causes, leading to a global health crisis in both acute and chron-
ic diseases, include finite global health care resources for sustained healthy human survival, the population explosion, increased
environmental pollution, decreased clean air, water, food distribution, diminishing opportunities for human self-esteem, increased
median life span, and the interconnection of infectious and chronic diseases. The transition of our pre-human nutritional require-
ments for survival to our current cultur-ally-shaped diet has created a biologically-mismatched human dietary experience. While
individual genetic, gender, and developmental stage factors contribute to human diseases, various environmental and culturally-de-
termined factors are now contributing to both acute and chronic diseases. The transition from the hunter-gatherer to an agri-cultur-
al-dependent human being has brought about a global crisis in human health. Initially, early humans ate sea-sonally-dependent and
calorically-restricted foods, during the day, in a “feast or famine” manner. Today, modern humans eat diets of caloric abundance, at
all times of the day, with foods of all seasons and from all parts of the world, that have been processed and which have been con-
taminated by all kinds of factors. No longer can one view, as distinct, infectious agent-related human acute diseases from chronic
diseases. Moreover, while dietary and environmental chemicals could, in principle, cause disease pathogenesis by mutagenic and
cytotoxic mecha-nisms, the primary cause is via “epigenetic”, or altered gene expression, modifications in the three types of cells
(e.g., adult stem; progenitor and terminally-differentiated cells of each organ) during all stages of human development. Even more
significantly, alteration in the quantity of adult stem cells during early development by epigenetic chemicals could either increase
or decrease the risk to various stem cell-based diseases, such as cancer, later in life. A new concept, the Barker hypothesis, has
emerged that indicates pre-natal maternal dietary exposures can now affect diseases later in life. Examples from the studies of the
atomic bomb survivors should illustrate this insight.
Key words:
barker hypothesis, adult stem cells, epigenetic, metabolic diseases, cell communication