Developmental Origins of Health and Disease


The nutritional ‘environment’ in utero is now recognised to influence the risk of cardiovascular and metabolic disease in the offspring. One focus of Lucilla Poston's research is to define the consequences of obesity in pregnant women and of sub-optimal maternal nutrition on the developing fetus. Her laboratory was amongst the first to develop animal models demonstrating that the offspring of obese rodents develop a predisposition to obesity, hypertension and insulin resistance at a young age. These also suggested that endocrine influences on the developing hypothalamus may permanently affect function, including central pathways influencing satiety and blood pressure control. In the clinic, Lucilla’s  team developed a complex lifestyle intervention for pregnant women living with obesity, the UPBEAT study. Studies by her team in UPBEAT women who developed Gestational Diabetes (GDM) have provided insight into metabolic dysfunction of this increasingly common disorder. UPBEAT continues with investigations of cardiometabolic outcomes in the UPBEAT children. Recently Lucilla’s team have developed a longitudinal maternal child cohort (eLIXIR, Born in South London) using linkage of routine electronic health records, one of the MRC's Longitudinal Populations Cohorts. This linkage is facilitating the study of the early origins of disease at a population level.

Pregnancy, obesity, gestational diabetes, nutrition, pre-eclampsia, Developmental Origins of Health and Disease, data linkage, maternal-child cohort