Babies galore; or recent findings and future perspectives of pregnancy cohorts with a focus on immunity

Population-based pregnancy cohort studies have become pivotal in the identification of pre- or perinatal environmental factors affecting children's health and the increase in children's disease risk. The initiation of pregnancy cohort studies over the past three decades has been significantly fostered by the pioneering epidemiological work of the late David Barker, who showed that individuals born with a low birth weight are at a greater risk of developing coronary heart disease later in life. Based on these findings, the “fetal origins hypothesis” or “Barker hypothesis” was proposed in the 1990s (Barker et al.
Source: Journal of Reproductive Immunology - Category: Allergy & Immunology Authors: Source Type: research