Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Contributors
- Preface
- Section 1 Trends and determinants of obesity in women of reproductive age
- Section 2 Pregnancy outcome
- Section 3 Long-term consequences
- 8 Long-term consequences of obesity in pregnancy for the mother
- 9 Long-term consequences of maternal obesity and gestational weight gain for offspring obesity and cardiovascular risk: intrauterine or shared familial mechanisms?
- 10 Influences of maternal obesity on the health of the offspring: a review of animal models
- 11 Developmental origins of obesity: energy balance pathways – appetite
- 12 Adipose tissue development and its potential contribution to later obesity
- 13 Maternal diet and nutritional status and risk of obesity in the child: the role of epigenetic mechanisms
- Section 4 Interventions
- Section 5 Management and policy
- Index
- Plate Section
- References
12 - Adipose tissue development and its potential contribution to later obesity
from Section 3 - Long-term consequences
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 August 2012
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Contributors
- Preface
- Section 1 Trends and determinants of obesity in women of reproductive age
- Section 2 Pregnancy outcome
- Section 3 Long-term consequences
- 8 Long-term consequences of obesity in pregnancy for the mother
- 9 Long-term consequences of maternal obesity and gestational weight gain for offspring obesity and cardiovascular risk: intrauterine or shared familial mechanisms?
- 10 Influences of maternal obesity on the health of the offspring: a review of animal models
- 11 Developmental origins of obesity: energy balance pathways – appetite
- 12 Adipose tissue development and its potential contribution to later obesity
- 13 Maternal diet and nutritional status and risk of obesity in the child: the role of epigenetic mechanisms
- Section 4 Interventions
- Section 5 Management and policy
- Index
- Plate Section
- References
Summary
Introduction
The early life environment may persistently influence the development of adipose tissue, thereby predisposing the offspring to obesity. There is substantial development within the adipose tissue depots from early fetal life through weaning to puberty [1]. These periods are associated with critical windows of vulnerability to the environment and lifestyle. Importantly, these windows differ greatly between species and are dependent on the maturity of the adipose tissue at birth [2].
The majority of animal species have only very limited adipose tissue stores at birth, which may relate to the high energy costs associated with deposition of fat as opposed to protein [3]. In addition, fetal adipose tissue tends to be primarily brown fat, which is characterized as being uniquely able to rapidly generate heat due to the presence of uncoupling protein (UCP)1 [4–6], with thermal production being as high as 300 W/kg compared to 1W/kg in all other tissues [7,8]. One notable exception is the human infant, which not only has appreciable brown fat stores but also large amounts of white subcutaneous fat [9]. Consequently, the newborn is capable of both generating large amounts of heat around its internal organs following cold exposure to the extrauterine environment, and of minimizing heat loss due to the insulatory properties of white fat.
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- Maternal Obesity , pp. 124 - 134Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2012