Many human epidemiological studies and animal experiments suggest that nutrition and other environmental factors in early developmental stages in life may induce persistent changes in metabolism and alter the susceptibility for chronic diseases in later stage of life. These chronic diseases include obesity, type 2 diabetes mellitus, cardiovascular diseases and cancers. Previous speakers have each focused on the links between childhood nutrition and specific health conditions. My review will focus on a brief summary of epigenetic epidemiology of a few human diseases, such as type 2 diabetes mellitus and also shortly on the molecular mechanism of epigenetic regulation, including DNA methylation, histone code, histone modifications and chromatin condensation. |
