Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
Review
. 2022 Feb 3:13:839436.
doi: 10.3389/fendo.2022.839436. eCollection 2022.

Developmental Origins of Metaflammation; A Bridge to the Future Between the DOHaD Theory and Evolutionary Biology

Hiroaki Itoh  1 , Megumi Ueda  1 , Misako Suzuki  1 , Yukiko Kohmura-Kobayashi  1
Affiliations
Review

Developmental Origins of Metaflammation; A Bridge to the Future Between the DOHaD Theory and Evolutionary Biology

Hiroaki Itoh et al. Front Endocrinol (Lausanne). .

Abstract

Metabolic syndrome refers to obesity-associated metabolic disorders that increase the risk of type 2 diabetes, coronary diseases, stroke, and other disabilities. Environmental imbalance during the early developmental period affects health and increases susceptibility to non-communicable diseases, including metabolic syndrome, in later life; therefore, the Developmental Origins of Health and Disease (DOHaD) theory was established. According to the DOHaD theory, the hypothesis of the energy-saving 'Thrifty Phenotype' in undernourished fetuses is one of the well-accepted schemes as a risk of developing metabolic syndrome. This phenotype is evolutionarily advantageous for survival of the fittest in a hangry environment after birth, a strong selection pressure, but increases the risk of developing metabolic syndrome under an obesogenic diet according to the 'Mismatch' hypothesis. Increasing evidences support that chronic inflammation pathophysiologically connects obesity to metabolic disorders in metabolic syndrome, leading to the concept of 'Metaflammation'. 'Metaflammation' in humans is proposed to originate from the evolutionary conservation of crosstalk between immune and metabolic pathways; however, few studies have investigated the contribution of evolutionary maladaptation to the pathophysiology of 'Metaflammation'. Therefore, it is promising to investigate 'Metaflammation' from the viewpoint of selective advantages and its 'Mismatch' to an unexpected environment in contemporary lifestyles, in consideration of the principal concept of evolutionarily conserved nutrient sensing and immune signaling systems.

Keywords: adipose tissue; developmental origins of health and disease (DOHaD); metabolic syndrome; obesity; pregnancy.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Immunohistochemistry of F4/80-positive hepatic macrophages from 22-week-old pups fed a high-fat diet (Reference 41). Positive staining is brown. TUDCA, Tauroursodeoxycholic acid.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Hypothetical understanding of ‘Metaflammation’ in metabolic syndrome from the viewpoint of the DOHaD theory and evolutionary biology. ER; endoplasmic reticulum.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. Huang PL. A Comprehensive Definition for Metabolic Syndrome. Dis Model Mech (2009) 2(5-6):231–7. doi: 10.1242/dmm.001180 - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Eckel RH, Alberti KG, Grundy SM, Zimmet PZ. The Metabolic Syndrome. Lancet (2010) 375(9710):181–3. doi: 10.1016/S0140-6736(09)61794-3 - DOI - PubMed
    1. Gluckman PD, Hanson MA. Developmental Origins of Health and Disease. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press; (2006).
    1. Hanson MA, Gluckman PD. Developmental Origins of Health and Disease - Global Public Health Implications. Best Pract Res Clin obstetrics Gynaecol (2014) 29(1):24–31. doi: 10.1016/j.bpobgyn.2014.06.007 - DOI - PubMed
    1. Itoh H, Kanayama N. Developmental Origins of Health and Diseases (Dohad); Perspective Toward Preemptive Medicine. In: Konishi I, editor. Singapore: Springer Nature; (2017).

Publication types