Biography
Biography: Laura Seco
Abstract
About 15% of couples at childbearing age have problems conceiving. There are many factors against which we can not fight as advanced maternal age, but there are others in which we can intervene, including a healthy nutrition. The relationship between optimal nutrition and fertility is demonstrated repeatedly throughout the scientific literature.
Parental nutritional status is able to intervene in the success or failure of the reproductive stages and even in the results of assisted reproduction techniques. They are involved in metabolism pathways regulating the activity of enzymes, signal transduction, transcription and oxidative stress.
The most important consequences of unhealthy nutrition or the presence of parental obesity includes menstrual disorders, infertility, miscarriage, and obstetric complications as well as mistakes in spermatogenesis, DNA fragmentation, and epigenetic changes in the methylation patterns generated in early development.
Inadequate intake of nutrients as the group of B vitamins, folate and methionine are capable of modifying DNA methylation patterns and produce mistakes ingametogenesis, fertilization, quality and embryo development, implantation and pregnancy ongoing, predisposing the offspring to different diseases.
We will carry out a review of the consequences and implications that has the dietary habits and certain nutrients throughout the reproductive stages and their relationships gene-nutrient through epigenetic mechanisms.
A new discipline emerges for the study of the dietary influence in gene expression, through changes in the epigenome: the nutri-epigenomics. Future research are needed to understand the link between DNA methylation, micronutrients intake and future consequences in the development stages. Define epigenetic biomarkers can help us to identify and prevent the risk and develop individual therapies such a nutritional interventions based on individual epigenetic profiles.
The most promising strategies are education and individual efforts with proper knowledge of healthy habits. Being the main objective the prevention of obesity and not the treatment of it and its consequences.