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According to the new paradigm of the Developpemental Origins of Health and Disease (DOHaD), the environmental factors to which an individual is exposed throughout his life can leave an epigenetic footprint on the genome. A crucial period is the early development, where the epigenome is particularly sensitive to the effects of the environment, and during which the individual builds up his health capital that will enable him to respond more or less well to the vagaries of life. The research challenge is to decipher the modes of action and the epigenetic mechanisms put into play by environmental factors that lead to increased disease susceptibility or resilience. The challenge for health is to translate these scientific discoveries into action through, among others, the establishment of preventive recommendations to slow down the growing incidence of non communicable diseases., (© 2016 médecine/sciences – Inserm.)

The existence of non-genetic and non-cultural mechanisms that transfer information on the memory of parental exposures to various environments, determining the reactivity of the following generations to their environments during their life, are of growing interest. Yet fundamental questions remain about the nature, the roles and relative importance of epigenetic marks and processes, non-coding RNAs, or other mechanisms, and their persistence over generations. A model incorporating the various transmission systems, their cross-talks and windows of susceptibility to the environment as a function of sex/gender of parent and offspring, has yet to be built., (© 2016 médecine/sciences – Inserm.)