Perinatal Programming of Central Obesity and the Metabolic Syndrome: Role of Glucocorticoids

摘要

Intrauterine growth retardation (IUGR) is associated with increased prevalence, at the adult age, of central obesity, the metabolic syndrome, and its complications (type 2 diabetes and coronary heart disease). Programming of the corticotropic function is one of the mechanisms underlying the above-mentioned phenomenon. An increased passage of active glucocorti-coids from the mother to the fetus can act, at the central nervous system level, to program an enhanced response to stress and, at the peripheral level, in adipose tissue to induce an in-creased local glucocorticoid exposure and sensitivity. In addition to an improvement of the health of pregnant women, early diagnosis of metabolic and hormonal disturbances is impor-tant in children with IUGR, in order to prevent a compensatory catch-up growth and its subsequent obesity, and to set up a therapeutic intervention against the deleterious conse-quences of hypercorticism.