Fetal programming of the thyroid hormone axis

Malnutrition during fetal life is thought to predispose for adverse health outcomes later in life, including obesity, type 2 diabetes (T2D), and cardiovascular disease (CVD). Thyroid hormones (THs) are required for normal function and development of nearly all tissues and regulate oxygen consumption and overall metabolic rate. Using our new Copenhagen sheep model, Johnsen et al. they studied the impacts on TH axis function and signaling in target tissues of global energy and protein malnutrition during late gestation, combined with different nutrition exposures in the early postnatal period, which included an obesogenic diet.

They show that late gestation-under nutrition programmed TH axis function at the secretory level and differentially in target tissues, which was increasingly manifested with age. Differential TH signaling in adipose vs other tissues may be part of a mechanism whereby fetal malnutrition can predispose for obesity and other metabolic disorders.

Read full article at Johnsen et al. (2013) Journal of Endocrinology 216 389-402 DOI: 10.1530/JOE-12-0389