Childhood obesity: a (re) programming disease?

Abstract

The aim of our article was to review the current literature on the effects of metabolic (re) programming on childhood obesity. PubMed/MEDLINE was the data source used to track the studies. Descriptors applied: children obesity, epigenetic, metabolic programming, exercise and nutrition. The focus was to analyze and discuss the international findings on the theme. The gathering of the papers was performed between June and August 2014. The search of articles with the descriptors used found 33.054 studies. In all, 5.709 studies were selected by crossing chosen keywords. Among these, after careful reading of the titles, 712 papers were considered potential as references. After applying inclusion/exclusion criteria, 50 studies were selected from 132 eligible abstracts. Most studies linked the development and treatment of obesity from epigenetically stimulated metabolic programming during the early stages of pregnancy and life. This review provides theoretical basis to the understanding that the programmed development of childhood obesity may be linked to early exposure to environmental factors, such as (nutrition and regular practice of exercise) and stimulus can epigenetically alter the modulation of the obesogenic metabolic behavior during pregnancy and the developmental stages of children and/or postpone the pathophysiologic disease stage to adulthood.

Keywords: children obesity; epigenetics; exercise; metabolic programming; nutrition.