ORCID Profile
0000-0002-6907-613X
Current Organisation
University of Southampton
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Publisher: Wiley
Date: 10-2019
DOI: 10.1002/IJGO.12953
Abstract: To develop a Core Outcome Set (COS) for pregnancy nutrition research that is relevant to varied stakeholders and resource settings. This study has three distinct phases. The first phase involves generating a list of outcomes for consideration for the COS. This includes a systematic review of studies evaluating nutrition during pregnancy where all outcomes reported in relevant literature will be extracted. Qualitative interviews with currently or previously pregnant women will also be conducted. This step will supplement the findings of the systematic review by identifying additional outcomes of importance to this stakeholder group. In the second phase of the study, healthcare professionals, researchers, and mothers from various international resource settings will be invited to participate in a two-round modified Delphi survey. The aim of the survey is to gain consensus on which outcomes are most important to include in the COS. Finally, a face-face consensus meeting will be held with a select group of participants to finalize the COS. This COS will support standardization of outcome reporting in pregnancy nutrition research and ensure that selected outcomes are considered important by a variety of stakeholders. This will enhance the evidence behind nutrition interventions in pregnancy to improve outcomes for pregnant women.
Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Date: 18-02-2014
Publisher: Cambridge University Press (CUP)
Date: 05-2008
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 07-12-2007
DOI: 10.1111/J.1471-0528.2007.01607.X
Abstract: To determine the role of carotid sinus innervation on differential fetal organ growth during maternal nutrient restriction in late pregnancy. Randomised controlled study. University research facility. Thirty-nine Merino ewes. At 113 days gestational age (dGA), fetuses were bilaterally carotid sinus denervated or sham denervated. From 118 dGA, the surgery groups were sub ided into two dietary groups, and their ewes were fed 100% of nutrient requirements or 50% until tissue collection at 140 dGA. This provided four groups (sham/control diet, sham/restricted diet, denervated/control diet and denervated/restricted diet). Fetal organ weights and hormone levels and maternal weight change during the dietary restriction. Adrenal glands were larger in sham/restricted diet fetuses than in sham/control diet or denervated/restricted diet fetuses (P < 0.05). Fetal adrenal weight and brain-to-liver weight ratio were positively related to maternal weight change during the nutritional challenge in sham fetuses only (P < 0.05). Fetal liver weight was negatively related to maternal weight change during nutritional challenge in sham fetuses only (P < 0.05). We have shown a reduction in liver growth but sparing of adrenal growth in response to moderate maternal undernutrition, which is dependent on intact carotid body innervation. This suggests a new role for the carotid bodies in the control of differential organ growth during such undernutrition.
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 14-06-2010
Publisher: Cambridge University Press (CUP)
Date: 23-09-2020
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 03-2004
Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Date: 07-2020
DOI: 10.1007/S10654-020-00662-Z
Abstract: Early life is an important window of opportunity to improve health across the full lifecycle. An accumulating body of evidence suggests that exposure to adverse stressors during early life leads to developmental adaptations, which subsequently affect disease risk in later life. Also, geographical, socio-economic, and ethnic differences are related to health inequalities from early life onwards. To address these important public health challenges, many European pregnancy and childhood cohorts have been established over the last 30 years. The enormous wealth of data of these cohorts has led to important new biological insights and important impact for health from early life onwards. The impact of these cohorts and their data could be further increased by combining data from different cohorts. Combining data will lead to the possibility of identifying smaller effect estimates, and the opportunity to better identify risk groups and risk factors leading to disease across the lifecycle across countries. Also, it enables research on better causal understanding and modelling of life course health trajectories. The EU Child Cohort Network, established by the Horizon2020-funded LifeCycle Project, brings together nineteen pregnancy and childhood cohorts, together including more than 250,000 children and their parents. A large set of variables has been harmonised and standardized across these cohorts. The harmonized data are kept within each institution and can be accessed by external researchers through a shared federated data analysis platform using the R-based platform DataSHIELD, which takes relevant national and international data regulations into account. The EU Child Cohort Network has an open character. All protocols for data harmonization and setting up the data analysis platform are available online. The EU Child Cohort Network creates great opportunities for researchers to use data from different cohorts, during and beyond the LifeCycle Project duration. It also provides a novel model for collaborative research in large research infrastructures with in idual-level data. The LifeCycle Project will translate results from research using the EU Child Cohort Network into recommendations for targeted prevention strategies to improve health trajectories for current and future generations by optimizing their earliest phases of life.
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 05-2017
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 05-2007
DOI: 10.1016/J.PLACENTA.2006.06.014
Abstract: The human fetus requires more glycine than any other amino acid but placental glycine transfer to the fetus is insufficient to meet fetal demand. L-Serine could represent a major metabolic source of glycine for the human fetus but little is known about the kinetics and physiology of L-serine uptake by the human placenta. We have characterised the amino acid transport systems involved in the uptake of L-serine by the microvillous membrane of the human placental syncytiotrophoblast and compared the uptake rates to those of glycine. L-Serine uptake into microvillous membrane (MVM) vesicles was primarily mediated by system A (MeAIB inhibitable) and system L (BCH inhibitable). Further characterisation using specific substrates of LAT1 and LAT2 found the pattern of L-serine uptake was consistent with that expected for uptake mediated by LAT2. Uptakes were performed with tracer levels of (14)C-L-serine, physiological levels of L-serine, or with physiological levels of amino acids. As amino acid concentrations rose, the proportion of uptake by System L decreased while uptake by uncharacterised Na(+)-independent systems increased. Uptake of Lserine into MVM vesicles had a V(max) of 2.1+/-0.4 nmol/mg protein/min, which was significantly higher than for glycine (V(max) 1.0+/-0.2 nmol/mg protein/min). This indicates that MVM vesicles have a higher uptake capacity for L-serine than glycine, despite a greater demand for glycine over serine for fetal protein synthesis. Further studies are now required to define the fate of L-serine taken up by the placenta and its importance for the fetus.
Publisher: Sight and Life
Date: 09-2023
DOI: 10.52439/POXP6899
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 08-2011
Publisher: Royal College of General Practitioners
Date: 29-04-2021
Publisher: Public Library of Science (PLoS)
Date: 06-03-2014
Publisher: American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS)
Date: 27-07-2011
DOI: 10.1126/SCITRANSLMED.3002554
Abstract: Recent scientific insights into early-life contributions to the adult obesity epidemic must now be translated into interventions.
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 02-2002
Abstract: The purpose of this study was to determine how chronic hypoxia and/or protein malnutrition in ovo affect growth in developing chicks. Chicken eggs were incubated under normoxic (21% oxygen n = 30 eggs) or hypoxic (14% oxygen n = 80 eggs) conditions. Hypoxia was imposed from day 0 (n = 38 eggs), day 10 (n = 22 eggs), or from day 0 to 10 (n = 20 eggs). Protein malnutrition alone (n = 20 eggs) or in combination with hypoxia (n = 24 eggs) was induced by removal of 10% of the estimated total albumin content of the egg. Embryos/chicks were killed and weighed at day 10, 15, or immediately after hatch organs were removed and weighed. Embryos to which hypoxia was imposed from day 0 weighed less than control embryos at day 10, which stayed the same until hatch (64.67% +/- 3.56% egg mass vs 69.36% +/- 3.90% [mean +/- SD] P <.05). Malnourished chicks at day 15 and at hatch (63.42% +/- 4.28% P <.05) weighed less than control chicks, as did malnourished plus hypoxia chicks (59.74% +/- 3.41% P <.001). Malnourished plus hypoxia chicks weighed less than malnourished chicks alone (P <.05). Embryos that were hypoxic from day 0 to 10 weighed less than control embryos at day 15 (P <.05), but not at hatch. At hatch, neither hypoxia nor malnutrition decreased crown-rump length. Brain and heart weights were increased in both malnourished groups, but not chicks that were hypoxic from day 0. Chick embryos exposed to malnutrition show asymmetric growth restriction with relative sparing of the brain and heart. Early growth restriction that was induced by hypoxia from the beginning of incubation is reversed by the restoration of normoxia at mid incubation.
Publisher: Cambridge University Press (CUP)
Date: 22-03-2017
DOI: 10.1017/S2040174417000149
Abstract: Placental transport of vitamin D and other nutrients (e.g. amino acids, fats and glucose) to the fetus is sensitive to maternal and fetal nutritional cues. We studied the effect of maternal calorific restriction on fetal vitamin D status and the placental expression of genes for nutrient transport [aromatic T-type amino acid transporter-1 (TAT-1) triglyceride hydrolase/lipoprotein uptake facilitator lipoprotein lipase (LPL)] and vitamin D homeostasis [CYP27B1 vitamin D receptor (VDR)], and their association with markers of fetal cardiovascular function and skeletal muscle growth. Pregnant sheep received 100% total metabolizable energy (ME) requirements (control), 40% total ME requirements peri-implantation [PI40, 1–31 days of gestation (dGA)] or 50% total ME requirements in late gestation (L, 104–127 dGA). Fetal, but not maternal, plasma 25-hydroxy-vitamin D (25OHD) concentration was lower in PI40 and L maternal undernutrition groups ( P .01) compared with the control group at 0.86 gestation. PI40 group placental CYP27B1 messenger RNA (mRNA) levels were increased ( P .05) compared with the control group. Across all groups, higher fetal plasma 25OHD concentration was associated with higher skeletal muscle myofibre and capillary density ( P .05). In the placenta, higher VDR mRNA levels were associated with higher TAT-1 ( P .05) and LPL ( P .01) mRNA levels. In the PI40 maternal undernutrition group only, reduced fetal plasma 25OHD concentration may be mediated in part by altered placental CYP27B1. The association between placental mRNA levels of VDR and nutrient transport genes suggests a way in which the placenta may integrate nutritional cues in the face of maternal dietary challenges and alter fetal physiology.
Publisher: KARGER
Date: 2008
DOI: 10.1159/000115337
Abstract: Evolutionary and developmental perspectives add considerably to our understanding of the aetiology of obesity and its related disorders. One pathway to obesity represents the maladaptive consequences of an evolutionarily preserved mechanism by which the developing mammal monitors nutritional cues from its mother and adjusts its developmental trajectory accordingly. Prediction of a nutritionally sparse environment leads to a phenotype that promotes metabolic parsimony by favouring fat deposition, insulin resistance, sarcopenia and low energy expenditure. But this adaptive mechanism evolved to accommodate gradual changes in nutritional environment rapid transition to a situation of high energy density results in a mismatch between predicted and actual environments and increased susceptibility to metabolic disease. This pathway may also explain why breast and bottle feeding confer different risks of obesity. We discuss how early environmental signals act through epigenetic mechanisms to alter metabolic partitioning, glucocorticoid action and neuroendocrine control of appetite. A second pathway involves alterations in fetal insulin levels, as seen in gestational diabetes, leading to increased prenatal fat mass which is subsequently lified by postnatal factors. Both classes of pathway may coexist in an in idual. This developmental approach to obesity suggests that potential interventions will vary according to the target population.
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 05-2010
DOI: 10.1016/J.PLACENTA.2010.01.016
Abstract: Both syncytiotrophoblast microvillous plasma membrane vesicles (MVM) and placental villous fragments are used to characterize the placental uptake of maternal substrate and to investigate changes in uptake associated with pathological conditions. However, the two techniques have not been directly compared. In this study uptake of (14)C-L-serine was compared in placental villous fragments and in MVM prepared from the same placentas. (14)C-L-serine uptake into MVM vesicles was mediated by System L and System A and smaller unidentified Na(+)-dependent and Na(+)-independent components. In villous fragments an unidentified Na(+)-dependent component mediated the majority of (14)C-L-serine uptake followed by System A and System L. The unidentified Na(+)-independent component of L-serine uptake was not detected in villous fragments. The ratio of System A activity to System L activity was similar in villous fragments and MVM vesicles. However, the unidentified Na(+)-dependent component in villous fragments was significantly higher than that in MVM vesicles. This indicates that the main differences in serine uptake mechanisms identified using the two techniques were not due to differences in System A and System L activity but to differences in the unidentified Na(+)-dependent component. This study suggests that uptake of L-serine into MVM vesicles and villous fragments via Systems A and L is comparable, but that this is not true for all components of L-serine uptake.
Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Date: 08-01-2019
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 02-2011
DOI: 10.1016/J.BBI.2010.09.005
Abstract: The prevalence of the metabolic syndrome, which represents a spectrum of metabolic and cardiovascular disorders, continues to increase at an alarming rate in contemporary society. Inadequate responses of an in idual to environmental challenges such as unbalanced diet or lack of physical exercise during their life course has been recognised to increase risk of this pathological condition. Recent evidence suggests that this may involve alterations in the settings of the circadian clock system, which consists of oscillating molecular pacemakers found not only in the hypothalamic region of the brain but also in most peripheral tissues, and of the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis which regulates stress responses. These two systems are now known to interact to produce an integrated response to environmental challenges. In this review, we highlight the importance of environmental cues during early development in establishing the homeostatic set-points of the circadian clock and HPA stress systems. These effects can operate within the normal range and are not in themselves pathological, but can nevertheless affect an in idual's response to environmental challenges in adult life and thus their risk of the metabolic syndrome.
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 05-2018
Publisher: American Physiological Society
Date: 2007
DOI: 10.1152/AJPENDO.00253.2006
Abstract: The early-life environment has implications for risk of adult-onset diseases, such as glucose intolerance, insulin insensitivity, and obesity, effects that may occur with or without reduced birth weight. We determined the consequences of nutrient restriction in early gestation and early postnatal life and their interactions on postnatal growth, body composition, and glucose handling. Ewes received 100% (C, n = 39) or 50% nutritional requirements (U, n = 41) from 1 to 31 days gestation and 100% thereafter. Male and female offspring (singleton/twin) from C and U ewes were then fed either ad libitum (CC n = 22, UC n = 19) or to reduce body weight to 85% of target from 12 to 25 wk of age (CU n = 17, UU n = 22) and ad libitum thereafter. At 1.5 and 2.5 yr, glucose handling was determined by area under the curve (AUC) for glucose and insulin concentrations following intravenous glucose (0.5 g/kg body wt). Insulin sensitivity was determined at 2.5 yr following intravenous insulin (0.5 IU/kg). In females, postnatal undernutrition reduced ( P 0.05) glucose AUC at both ages, regardless of prenatal nutrition. Postnatal undernutrition did not affect insulin secretion in females but enhanced insulin-induced glucose disappearance in singletons. Poor early postnatal growth was associated with increased fat in females. In males, glucose tolerance was unaffected by undernutrition despite changes in insulin AUC dependent on age, treatment, and single/twin birth. Nutrition in early postnatal life has long-lasting, sex-specific effects on glucose handling in sheep, likely due, in females, to enhanced insulin sensitivity. Improved glucose utilization may aid weight recovery but have negative implications for glucose homeostasis and body composition over the longer term.
Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Date: 2010
DOI: 10.1186/GM135
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 03-2021
DOI: 10.1002/IJGO.13522
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 09-09-2015
DOI: 10.1113/JP270743
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 04-02-2016
DOI: 10.1113/JP270579
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 14-08-2009
DOI: 10.1113/EXPPHYSIOL.2009.047340
Abstract: The nutritional environment during development and even prior to conception may contribute to cardiovascular risk. In mature adult female sheep, we investigated the effect of preconceptional and periconceptional maternal nutritional restriction on the vascular reactivity of arteries from four vascular beds supplying the heart, thorax, kidney and hindlimb. Welsh Mountain ewes received 100% of nutrient requirements throughout gestation (control group, C, n = 18), or 50% of nutrient requirements for 30 days prior to conception (preconceptional group, PRE, n = 20) or for 15 days either side of conception (periconceptional group, PERI, n = 31) and 100% thereafter. In 3.5‐year‐old female offspring, the left anterior descending coronary (LAD), left internal thoracic (LITA), right renal and second and third order femoral arteries were dissected and their reactivity was assessed by organ bath or wire myography. Vasoconstrictor responses were greater in both LAD and LITA from PERI offspring compared with C ( P 0.01), while vasoconstriction was unaffected by maternal diet in arteries from the renal and femoral circulations ( P = n.s.). Endothelium‐dependent and ‐independent vasodilatation was attenuated in third order femoral arteries of PRE and PERI groups compared with C ( P 0.05). Endothelium‐independent vasodilatation was attenuated in both the LAD and renal arteries in the PERI group compared with C ( P 0.05). These data show that moderate maternal undernutrition either prior to or around conception affects vascular function of adult offspring. The effect depends on the timing of the insult, but also on the vascular bed studied and vessel hierarchy in the vascular tree.
Publisher: Ovid Technologies (Wolters Kluwer Health)
Date: 10-2018
Publisher: Informa UK Limited
Date: 2019
Publisher: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
Date: 29-05-2007
Abstract: The early life environment has long-term implications for the risk of developing cardiovascular (CV) disease in adulthood. Fetal responses to changes in maternal nutrition may be of immediate benefit to the fetus, but the long-term effects of these adaptations may prove detrimental if nutrition in postnatal life does not match that predicted by the fetus on the basis of its prenatal environment. We tested this predictive adaptive response hypothesis with respect to CV function in sheep. We observed that a mismatch between pre- and postnatal nutrient environments induced an altered CV function in adult male sheep that was not seen when environments were similar. Sheep that received postnatal undernutrition alone had altered growth, CV function, and basal hypothalamo–pituitary–adrenal axis activity in adulthood. Prenatal undernutrition induced greater weight gain by weaning compared with the prenatal control diet, which may provide a reserve in the face of a predicted poor diet in later life. In an adequate postnatal nutrient environment (i.e., relatively mismatched), these offspring exhibited cardiac hypertrophy and altered CV function in adulthood. These data support the concept that adult CV function can be determined by developmental responses to intrauterine nutrition made in expectation of the postnatal nutritional environment, and that if these predictions are not met, the adult may be maladapted and at greater risk of CV disease. Our findings have substantial implications for devising strategies to reduce the impact of a mismatch in nutrition levels in humans undergoing rapid socio-economic transitions in both developing and developed societies.
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 08-2003
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 07-01-2005
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 08-2017
Publisher: S. Karger AG
Date: 2005
DOI: 10.1159/000082311
Abstract: The hypothesis that there is a developmental component to subsequent adult disease initially arose from epidemiological findings relating birth size to either indices of disease risk or actual disease prevalence in later life. While components of the epidemiological analyses have been challenged, there is strong evidence that developmental factors contribute to the later risk of metabolic disease – including insulin resistance, obesity, and heart disease – as well as have a broader impact on osteoporosis, depression and schizophrenia. We suggest that disease risk is greater when there is a mismatch between the early developmental environment (i.e., the phase of developmental plasticity) versus that experienced in mature life (i.e., adulthood), and that nutritional influences are particularly important. It is also critical to distinguish between those factors acting during the developmental phase that disrupt development from those influences that are less extreme and act through regulated processes of epigenetic change. A modelof the relationship between the developmental and mature environment is proposed and suggests interventional strategies that will vary in different population settings.
Publisher: BMJ
Date: 27-02-2023
DOI: 10.1136/BMJSRH-2022-201699
Abstract: Unhealthy lifestyle is responsible for many chronic conditions, and antenatal engagement with women about lifestyle behaviours can be too late to prevent some adverse pregnancy outcomes and subsequent childhood risks. To reduce the risk of future adverse outcomes, the interconception period is an opportunity to implement positive health changes. The aim of this scoping review was to explore women’s needs for lifestyle risk reduction engagement during the interconception period. The JBI methodology guided our scoping review. Six databases were searched for peer-reviewed, English-language research papers published between 2010 and 2021 on topics including perceptions, attitudes, lifestyle, postpartum, preconception and interconception. Title-abstract and full text screening was independently undertaken by two authors. Included papers’ reference lists were searched to find additional papers. The main concepts were then identified using a descriptive and tabular approach. A total of 1734 papers were screened and 33 met our inclusion criteria. Most included papers (82%, n=27) reported on nutrition and/or physical activity. Papers identified interconception through postpartum and/or preconception. Women’s self-management needs for lifestyle risk reduction engagement during interconception included: informational needs, managing competing priorities, physical and mental health, self-perception and motivation, access to services and professional support, and family and peer networks. There is a range of challenges for women to engage in lifestyle risk reduction during interconception. To enable women’s preferences for how lifestyle risk reduction activities can be enacted, issues including childcare, ongoing and tailored health professional support, domestic support, cost and health literacy need to be addressed.
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 05-2009
Publisher: S. Karger AG
Date: 2013
DOI: 10.1159/000350702
Abstract: This report provides a summary of a workshop organised by the European Commission-funded i EarlyNutrition Project /i and the i EarlyNutrition Academy. /i Accurate and reliable methods to assess body composition are needed in research on prenatal and early post-natal influences of nutrition on later health because common surrogate measures of maternal and offspring adiposity (body fat content), such as body mass index (BMI), have relatively poor predictive power for the risk of later disease. The key goals of the workshop were to discuss approaches to assess growth and body composition from pregnancy to adolescence, to summarise conclusions and to prepare a framework for research in the i EarlyNutrition Project /i . The participants concluded that there is a pressing need to harmonise the methodologies for assessing body composition, recognising that each has advantages and limitations. Essential core measurements across studies assessing early growth and body composition were identified, including weight, length, BMI, waist and mid-upper arm circumference, subscapular and triceps skinfold thicknesses, and bioelectrical impedance analysis. In research settings with access to more sophisticated technologies, additional methods could include dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry, peripheral quantitative computed tomography, ultrasound assessment of regional body fat, magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), air displacement plethysmography (ADP), and deuterium dilution. These provide richer data to answer research questions in greater depth but also increase costs. Where overall whole-body composition is the primary outcome measure, ADP or tracer dilution should be used whenever possible. Where regional distribution of body fat is of greater interest, an imaging technique such as MRI is preferred.
Publisher: Cambridge University Press (CUP)
Date: 11-2009
Location: United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland
Location: United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland
Location: United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland
Location: United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland
Location: United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland
Location: United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland
No related grants have been discovered for Mark Hanson.