The Dutch Famine of 1944-1945: A pathophysiological model of long-term consequences of wasting disease

Current Opinion in Clinical Nutrition and Metabolic Care

Volumn 9, Issue 4, 2006, Pages 388-394

  Kyle, Ursula G ^a   Pichard, Claude ^a  

^a GENEVA UNIVERSITY HOSPITALS   (Switzerland)

Author keywords

Dutch Famine; Famine; Pregnancy

Indexed keywords

BLOOD CLOTTING FACTOR 7; FIBRINOGEN; LIPID; SOMATOMEDIN C;

ANTISOCIAL BEHAVIOR; ATHEROGENESIS; BRAIN DEVELOPMENT; BRAIN MALFORMATION; BREAST CANCER; CENTRAL NERVOUS SYSTEM MALFORMATION; CHILDHOOD; CHOLESTEROL BLOOD LEVEL; CONGENITAL MALFORMATION; CONVALESCENCE; DEVELOPMENTAL DISORDER; DYSLIPIDEMIA; EARLY MENOPAUSE; EVOLUTION; FIBRINOGEN BLOOD LEVEL; GESTATIONAL AGE; GLUCOSE INTOLERANCE; HUMAN; HUNGER; HYPERTENSION; IMPAIRED GLUCOSE TOLERANCE; ISCHEMIC HEART DISEASE; LIFE; LIVER DYSFUNCTION; LIVER SIZE; LONG TERM EXPOSURE; MALNUTRITION; MEDICAL LITERATURE; METABOLIC DISORDER; MICROALBUMINURIA; MOOD DISORDER; MOTHER; NONHUMAN; NUTRITIONAL HEALTH; OBESITY; OBSTRUCTIVE AIRWAY DISEASE; PATHOPHYSIOLOGY; PRENATAL EXPOSURE; PROTEIN BLOOD LEVEL; REPRODUCTION; REVIEW; SCHIZOPHRENIA; STROKE; WASTING SYNDROME; WINTER;

BREAST NEOPLASMS; CORONARY DISEASE; FEMALE; GLUCOSE INTOLERANCE; HUMANS; MATERNAL NUTRITION PHYSIOLOGY; MATERNAL NUTRITIONAL PHYSIOLOGICAL PHENOMENA; MODELS, BIOLOGICAL; OBESITY; PREGNANCY; PRENATAL EXPOSURE DELAYED EFFECTS; STARVATION; TIME FACTORS; WASTING DISEASE, CHRONIC;

EID: 33746189670     PISSN: 13631950     EISSN: 15353885     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1097/01.mco.0000232898.74415.42     Document Type: Review

References (39)

1. Stein AD, Lumey LH. The relationship between maternal and offspring birth weights after maternal prenatal famine exposure: the Dutch Famine Birth Cohort Study. Hum Biol 2000; 72:641-654.
2. Ravelli AC, van der Meulen JH, Michels RP, et al. Glucose tolerance in adults after prenatal exposure to famine. Lancet 1998; 351:173-177.
3. Ravelli AC, van Der Meulen JH, Osmond C, et al. Obesity at the age of 50 y in men and women exposed to famine prenatally. Am J Clin Nutr 1999; 70:811-816.
4. Roseboom TJ, van der Meulen JH, Osmond C, et al. Coronary heart disease after prenatal exposure to the Dutch famine, 1944-45. Heart 2000; 84:595-598.
5. Roseboom TJ, van der Meulen JH, Osmond C, et al. Plasma lipid profiles in adults after prenatal exposure to the Dutch famine. Am J Clin Nutr 2000; 72:1101-1106.
6. Roseboom TJ, van der Meulen JH, Ravelli AC, et al. Plasma fibrinogen and factor VII concentrations in adults after prenatal exposure to famine. Br J Haematol 2000; 111:112-117.
7. Roseboom TJ, van der Meulen JH, Ravelli AC, et al. Blood pressure in adults after prenatal exposure to famine. J Hypertens 1999; 17:325-330.
8. Roseboom TJ, van der Meulen JH, van Montfrans GA, et al. Maternal nutrition during gestation and blood pressure in later life. J Hypertens 2001; 19:29-34.
9. Painter RC, Roseboom TJ, van Montfrans GA, et al. Microalbuminuria in adults after prenatal exposure to the Dutch famine. J Am Soc Nephrol 2005; 16:189-194. This study shows that mid gestation is a period of rapid increase in nephron number, which is critical in determining nephron endowment at birth. Foetal undernutrition may lead to lower nephron endowment with consequent microalbuminuria in adult life.
10. Lopuhaa CE, Roseboom TJ, Osmond C, et al. Atopy, lung function, and obstructive airways disease after prenatal exposure to famine. Thorax 2000; 55:555-561.
11. Susser E, Hoek HW, Brown A. Neurodevelopmental disorders after prenatal famine: The story of the Dutch Famine Study. Am J Epidemiol 1998; 147:213-216.
12. Hulshoff Pol HE, Hoek HW, Susser E, et al. Prenatal exposure to famine and brain morphology in schizophrenia. Am J Psychiatry 2000; 157:1170-1172.
13. Hoek HW, Brown AS, Susser E. The Dutch Famine and schizophrenia spectrum disorders. Soc Psychiatry Psychiatr Epidemiol 1998; 33:373-379.
14. Neugebauer R, Hoek HW, Susser E. Prenatal exposure to wartime famine and development of antisocial personality disorder in early adulthood. JAMA 1999; 282:455-462.
15. Brown AS, van Os J, Driessens C, et al. Further evidence of relation between prenatal famine and major affective disorder. Am J Psychiatry 2000; 157:190-195.
16. Elias SG, Peeters PH, Grobbee DE, van Noord PA. Breast cancer risk after caloric restriction during the 1944-1945 Dutch Famine. J Natl Cancer Inst 2004; 96:539-546.
17. Elias SG, van Noord PA, Peeters PH, et al. Caloric restriction reduces age at menopause: the effect of the 1944-1945 Dutch Famine. Menopause 2003; 10:399-405.
18. Elias SG, van Noord PA, Peeters PH, et al. Childhood exposure to the 1944-1945 Dutch Famine and subsequent female reproductive function. Hum Reprod 2005; 20:2483-2488. This study supports the findings that childhood famine exposure impairs subsequent female reproductive function.
19. Elias SG, Keinan-Boker L, Peeters PH, et al. Long term consequences of the 1944-1945 Dutch Famine on the insulin-like growth factor axis. Int J Cancer 2004; 108:628-630.
20. Roseboom TJ, Van Der Meulen JH, Ravelli AC, et al. Perceived health of adults after prenatal exposure to the Dutch Famine. Paediatr Perinat Epidemiol 2003; 17:391-397.
21. Stein Z, Susser M. Fertility, fecundity, famine: food rations in the Dutch Famine 1944/5 have a causal relation to fertility, and probably to fecundity. Hum Biol 1975; 47:131-154.
22. Stein AD, Ravelli AC, Lumey LH. Famine, third-trimester pregnancy weight gain, and intrauterine growth: the Dutch Famine Birth Cohort Study. Hum Biol 1995; 67:135-150.
23. Roseboom TJ, van der Meulen JH, Ravelli AC, et al. Effects of prenatal exposure to the Dutch Famine on adult disease in later life: an overview. Mol Cell Endocrinol 2001; 185:93-98.
24. Barker DJP. Mothers, babies and health in later life. Edinburgh: Churchill Livingstone; 1998.
25. Vagero D, Leon D. Ischaemic heart disease and low birth weight: a test of the fetal-origins hypothesis from the Swedish Twin Registry. Lancet 1994; 343:260-263.
26. Desai M, Crowther NJ, Lucas A, Hales CN. Organ-selective growth in the offspring of protein-restricted mothers. Brit J Nutr 1996; 76:591-603.
27. Hales CN, Desai M, Ozanne SE, Crowther NJ. Fishing in the stream of diabetes: from measuring insulin to the control of fetal organogenesis. Biochem Soc Trans 1996; 24:341-350.
28. Meade TW, North WR, Chakrabarti R, et al. Haemostatic function and cardiovascular death: early results of a prospective study. Lancet 1980; 1:1050-1054.
29. Shaper AG, Pocock SJ, Walker M, et al. British Regional Heart Study: cardiovascular risk factors in middle-aged men in 24 towns. Br Med J (Clin Res Ed) 1981; 283:179-186.
30. Painter RC, Roseboom TJ, Bossuyt PM, et al. Adult mortality at age 57 after prenatal exposure to the Dutch Famine. Eur J Epidemiol 2005; 20:673-676. This review did not demonstrate an effect of prenatal exposure to famine on adult mortality up to the age of 57 years. The authors suggest that future studies will resolve if famine exposure is linked to increased adult mortality.
31. Stanner SA, Bulmer K, Andres C, et al. Does malnutrition in utero determine diabetes and coronary heart disease in adulthood? Results from the Leningrad siege study, a cross sectional study. BMJ 1997; 315:1342-1348.
32. Stanner SA, Yudkin JS. Fetal programming and the Leningrad Siege study. Twin Res 2001; 4:287-292.
33. Sparen P, Vagero D, Shestov DB, et al. Long term mortality after severe starvation during the siege of Leningrad: prospective cohort study. BMJ 2004; 328:11.
34. Painter RC, Roseboom TJ, Bleker OP. Prenatal exposure to the Dutch famine and disease in later life: an overview. Reprod Toxicol 2005; 20:345-352. This study shows that maternal under-nutrition during gestation has important effects on health in later life and that the timing of the nutritional insult determines which organ system is affected.
35. Law CL, Shiell AW. Is blood pressure inversely related to birthweight? The strength of evidence from a systematic review of the literature. J Hypertens 1996; 14:935-941.
36. Susser E, Neugebauer R, Hoek HW, et al. Schizophrenia after prenatal famine. Further evidence. Arch Gen Psychiatry 1996; 53:25-31.
37. O'Rahilly RO, Muller F. Human embryology and teratology. New York Wiley-Liss; 1992.
38. St Clair D, Xu M, Wang P, et al. Rates of adult schizophrenia following prenatal exposure to the Chinese famine of 1959-1961. JAMA 2005; 294:557-562. This study replicated the Dutch data and showed that prenatal exposure to famine increases the risk for schizophrenia in later life.
39. Van Noord PA, Haars G, Peeters PH. Age at exposure to the Dutch Famine of 1944-1945 has opposing effects on adult mammographic density (DY); a study in the DOM cohort. IARC Sci Publ 2002; 156:541-542.