Epigenetics and Obesity

Obesity is a significant public health concern and a central component of metabolic syndrome. An important scientific and clinical aspect of obesity is the considerable evidence for its developmental origins in the periconceptual and perinatal environment, indicating that the susceptibility to obesity can be mediated by environmental inputs that stably alter metabolic outcomes. These observations reflect the function of an active epigenetic mechanism that can biochemically program gene expression through DNA and histone modification, a hypothesis supported by studies in animal models and human cohorts showing strong correlations between early developmental exposures, chromatin modifications, and obesity. Consistent with the central role of the hypothalamus in regulating energy balance, many of the epigenetic effects of obesogenic exposures are targeted to the orexigenic and anorexigenic functions of the hypothalamic feeding center, and their ability to properly regulate feeding behavior, energy expenditure, and metabolic flux in peripheral tissues.