The assembly of microbial communities within the gastrointestinal tract during early life plays
a critical role in immune, endocrine, metabolic, and other host developmental pathways …

Parental environmental factors, including diet, body composition, metabolism, and stress,
affect the health and chronic disease risk of people throughout their lives, as captured in the …

Micronutrients, vitamins and minerals accessible from the diet, are essential for biologic
activity. Micronutrient status varies widely throughout pregnancy and across populations …

One-carbon (1C) metabolism comprises a series of interlinking metabolic pathways that
include the methionine and folate cycles that are central to cellular function, providing 1C …

BACKGROUND Maternal factors, including increasing childbearing age and various life-
style factors, are associated with poorer short-and long-term outcomes for children, whereas …

Across the Western World there is an increasing trend to postpone childbearing.
Consequently, the negative influence of age on oocyte quality may lead to a difficulty in …

BACKGROUND Estrogens regulate disparate female physiological processes, thus
ensuring reproduction. Altered estrogen levels and signaling have been associated with …

Unlike the genome, the epigenome can be modified and hence some epigenetic risk
markers have the potential to be reversed. Such modifications take place by means of drugs …

BACKGROUND The advances in the world of IVF during the last decades have been rapid
and impressive and culture media play a major role in this success. Until the 1980s fertility …

Background Maternal nutrition during pregnancy and infant nutrition in the early postnatal
period (lactation) are critically involved in the development and health of the newborn infant …