Molecular Nutrition: Mother and Infant

Molecular Nutrition: Mother and Infant presents the impact of diet in early life stages from pre-conception, throughout pregnancy and to the infant.

Separated into three parts, general and introductory aspects, molecular biology of the cell, and genetic machinery and its function, the first part of the book provides general coverage in relation to diet and nutrition, pregnancy, placenta, weight gain, breast milk, feeding practices, gestational disease, glucose metabolism, immunity, vitamins and minerals.

Part two addresses fetal programming, bioactive compounds, amino acids, intrauterine growth, one carbon metabolism, overnutrition, mitochondrial function, signalling, high fat diets, vascular function, and caffeine.

Finally, part three presents genetic risk factors, polymorphisms, folic acid genes, DNA methylation, genes involved in lipid metabolism, microRNAs, epigenetics, transcriptomics and micro RNA.

This book is sure to be a welcomed reference for research scientists and practitioners, including nutritionists and dieticians.

Addresses mother an infant nutrition which is important for the wellbeing of humankindContains coverage from pre-conception to the young offspringIncludes pedagogical features (e.g. a list of key facts, mini-dictionaries of terms and definitions, and summary points) to assist in its use as a reference textContains coverage of emerging fields of molecular biology and important discoveries related to diet and nutritional health

Part 1: General and Introductory Aspects 1. Diet and maternal nutrition: an overview 2. Placenta metabolism 3. Pregnancy and weight gain 4. Breast milk feeding and impact on the infant: an overview 5. Feeding practices of infants 6. Nutritionally-driven gestational diseases and impact on health of the mother and infant 7. Glucose metabolism and pregnancy 8. Immune aspects of pregnancy and role of nutrition 9. Vitamin status in pregnancy and newborns 10. Fatty acid intake during perinatal periods 11. Mineral in pregnancy and newborns 12. Perinatal interventions; current and future perspectives 13. Perinatal nutrition and obesity

Part 2: Molecular Biology of the Cell 14. Molecular aspects of fetal programming 15. Molecular aspects of dietary bioactive compounds in pregnancy 16. Amino acid transporters and protein metabolism in intrauterine growth (can focus on a single or groups of amino acids such as tryptophan) 17. Maternal micronutrients and one carbon metabolism 18. Overnutrition and mitochondrial function 19. mTOR, insulin/IGF-I signalling in relation to nutrients in pregnancy 20. Maternal high fat diet and molecular aspects of vascular function 21. Caffeine exposure and CNS developmental processes

Part 3: Genetic Machinery and Its Function 22. Genetic risk factors in nutrient metabolism and fetal development 23. Pregnancy loss and polymorphisms in folic acid genes 24. Maternal vitamins and DNA methylation and implications for offspring (may want to focus on B vitamins) 25. Maternal obesity, and genes involved in lipid metabolism 26. Diet in lactation periods and impact on cancer: genetic aspects of mammary tissue 27. Maternal diet consumption and microRNAs 28. Vitamins (example of vitamin D) in pregnancy and gene expression 29. Epigenetic changes associated to different fat consumption 30. Epigenetic genes and maternal obesity 31. Transcriptomics of cord blood and implications for nutrition and diet 32. Maternal undernutrition and organ microRNAs 33. Genomic imprinting and fetal development (to link with nutrition and growth) 34. Nutritional influence on miRNA epigenetic regulation