The Highs and Lows of Fetal Programming for Fatty Liver Disease

Birth weight is determined by a multitude of factors, such as maternal health, parity, nutritional status, genetics, as well as socioeconomic status.1-4 In utero exposures that directly affect birth weight also have epigenetic consequences for the offspring.5,6 As a result, birth weight is a marker of health, as well as an indicator of future disease risk, as suggested by the Barker hypothesis.7 Low and high birth weights (LBW and HBW), typically in conjunction with rapid weight gain early in life, have been associated with obesity8 and features of metabolic dysregulation,9 such as diabetes,10 hypertension,11 dyslipidemia,12 and atherosclerosis13 in late childhood or adulthood.

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