2014 Volume 26 Issue 2 Pages 250-255
The hypothesis of ‘Developmental Origins of Health and Disease (DOHaD),’ which proposes that the risk of developing some chronic non-communicable diseases in adulthood is influenced not only by genetic and adult life-style factors but also by environmental factors acting in fetal and infantile life, has been supported by a lot of epidemiological and animal studies. The risk of chronic kidney disease (CKD) is also affected by fetal and infantile environment. It is speculated that the reduction of nephron number caused by the poor environment during fetal and infantile life is involved in the pathogenesis of CKD. Many epidemiological observations have revealed that low birth weight increases the risk of developing CKD in adulthood. We recently reported that some extremely low birth weight infant developed CKD linked to DOHaD hypothesis even in childhood. It is important to know the fetal and infantile environment to make an accurate diagnosis of CKD in childhood. The average of birth weight continues to decrease and the incidence of low birth weight infant (less than 2.5 kg) continues to increase in Japan. It means that big medical and socioeconomic problems are supposed to be occurred in near future. It is important to implement health education perspective on the life cycle.
