Endocrine Abstracts

Our health and wellbeing are influenced by numerous factors, including our early developmental hormonal and nutritional environments. Indeed, modifications of hormones and nutrition during specific developmental periods can have long-lasting effects on fundamental functions such as metabolism and reproduction, with these long-term changes often being sex dependent. Moreover, modifications in one neuroendocrine system can have an important impact on other neuroendocrine axes, as well as on the propensity to suffer specific diseases later in life. Understanding how these processes interact throughout life is of great importance to improve health and wellbeing. We have employed various experimental models in attempt to understand how modifications in the fetal and neonatal environments can affect pubertal onset and metabolism in adulthood. For example, maternal separation can dramatically modify levels of hormones (e.g., leptin) implicated in the development of metabolic circuits, resulting in changes in the response to later dietary challenges and in the onset of puberty. Neonatal overnutrition also impacts on pubertal development and metabolic health in adulthood, with these effects being different between males and females. Likewise, maternal diet has been shown to modify metabolic wellbeing in adult offspring, and we have recently found that maternal intake of the polyphenol, resveratrol, impacts on the offspring’s metabolic health in a sex specific manner, and more surprisingly, the response depends on whether the maternal diet is high fat or low fat. This talk will summarize the findings of the different models employed to support the hypothesis that our early developmental experiences have long-lasting effects on puberty and metabolism, as well as on our susceptibility to other diseases.