Journal
CURRENT OPINION IN CLINICAL NUTRITION AND METABOLIC CARE
Volume 10, Issue 5, Pages 591-596Publisher
LIPPINCOTT WILLIAMS & WILKINS
DOI: 10.1097/MCO.0b013e3282ab9ea6
Keywords
heritability estimates; intrauterine environment; metabolic syndrome; twins; type 2 diabetes
Categories
Ask authors/readers for more resources
Purpose of review The purpose of this review to provide a critical update of the impact of the 'thrifty phenotype hypothesis' on metabolism, and its implications for heritability estimates as obtained in so-called classical twin studies. Recent findings Our recent studies demonstrated a complex age or time-dependent relationship between different and independent markers of an adverse intrauterine environment, including birth weight, twin and zygosity status on one side, and distinct defects of insulin secretion and glucose metabolism on the other side. Summary These novel findings may, to some unknown extent, influence and perhaps bias the heritability estimates of type 2 diabetes-related traits obtained using classical twin analyses. The studies add to the increasing evidence of the intrauterine environment as a - or the - key player in the cause and pathophysiology of type 2 diabetes and the metabolic syndrome. we and others have shown that monozygotic twins represent a powerful tool to demonstrate nongenetic associations between low birth weight and different phenotypes of the metabolic syndrome, including type 2 diabetes, insulin resistance and recently, hypertension. Future studies of discordant monozygotic twins may provide novel and crucial mechanistic explanations of the link between low birth weight and the metabolic syndrome.
Authors
I am an author on this paper
Click your name to claim this paper and add it to your profile.
Reviews
Recommended
No Data Available