Fetal programming and immune system
Nutritional or/and hormonal changes in the embryo-fetal
microenvironment, can alter the fetal genomic expression
and exert permanent effects on a wide range of physiological
processes [34]. This phenomenon is known as “fetal programming”
(Table 3). Results from recent researches confirmed that
maternal-fetal malnutrition (both hypo- and hyper-nutrition)
exerts a suppressive effect on the immune response of both
mother and fetus, with inevitable consequences on the deveopment
of the immune system of the latter [35,36]. Hyponutrition,
in fact, evokes a significant hypotrophy of both primary and
secondary lymphoid organs. Also hyper-nutrition, especially if
characterized by the abundance of fat, may have a suppressive
effect on the immune response [29,35]