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Effects of early programming on child's neurodevelopmental outcomes (NUTRIOMICS)
Start date: Apr 15, 2013, End date: Apr 23, 2016 PROJECT  FINISHED 

Diet plays an important role on the effects of neurodevelopment and there is evidence that early nutrition can influence later neurodevelopmental outcomes. Folate and polyunsaturated fatty acids, nutrients obtained via diet, are considered of extreme importance for neurodevelopment. However, the current knowledge on this field is largely based on animal, retrospective, short-term nutritional intervention studies in humans, and the scarce randomised control studies performed in humans provide controversial results. A multi-centre well-designed project of the long-term effects of early nutrition on child’s health is needed.Another important factor in child’s development is the effect of maternal metabolic pathologies, particularly obesity, on child’s early programming. Obese women are frequently deficient in fatty acids and folates during pregnancy, nevertheless there are only few studies on maternal BMI and its effects on nutrional status. It is not known to what extent BMI influences early programming.The current project aims to study the short and long-term effects of early programming (maternal supplementation during pregnancy and maternal obesity) together with polymorphisms in fatty acid and folate metabolism on maternal metabolomics during pregnancy and infant’s transcriptomic and epigenomic profiles at delivery in association with child’s neurodevelopmental outcomes.The current project would enable to establish positive dietary and body weight recommendations for women planning pregnancy and for pregnant women, which could be of broad social significance in terms of affecting health behaviours, education, work potential and mental illness in every age group. Further, the general concept that early programming might program long-term health has potentially far-reaching consequences. Additionally, the systems biology approach of integrating genetic, transcriptomic, epigenomic, and metabolomic information would provide more complete picture of living organism.

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