Supervisors info:
Ιωάννα Γιαννοπούλου, ΕΔΙΠ, Ιατρική Σχολή, ΕΚΠΑ, Επιβλέπουσα
Ανδρέας Χ. Λάζαρης, Καθηγητής, Ιατρική Σχολή, ΕΚΠΑ
Σωτήριος Μάιπας, Εντεταλμένος Διδάσκων, Ιατρική Σχολή, ΕΚΠΑ
Summary:
It is now known that the effect of environmental pollution, exposure to chemicals with harmful effects and living conditions, lead to an increased risk of pathological conditions in the human body. The environment is burdened by chemicals and heavy metals, air pollution is high and climate change is more evident than ever. The use of chemicals to improve areas of human life such as nutrition, medication and other consumer products is often an aggravating factor for human health. Living conditions, lifestyle, stress, and intense experiences can cause undesirable effects on human health. The human body is affected by chronic or acute exposure to exogenous factors that have a harmful effect. The diversity of effects depends on the levels, duration and time point of exposure of the human body, as other effects arise in a person during the adult period of his life and others in an embryo during its intrauterine development. Exposures during pregnancy and neonatal life are critical windows with lasting effects on future health and susceptibility to disease. Both genetic and environmental factors contribute to multifactorial diseases, while the exact environmental causes and underlying pathophysiological mechanisms remain under investigation. Pathological conditions can occur at any stage of human life. However, discrete time windows, such as pregnancy, childhood, adolescence, adulthood and elderly are characterized by different probabilities/predispositions. Over the past decade, attention has focused on the period of pregnancy, during exposure to harmful factors should be avoided to ensure the better conditions in the beginning of newborns. Exposures to harmful environmental factors are important determinants of reprogramming gene expression due to DNA methylation modification during early life. These epigenetic changes may persist throughout life, leading to pathologies of adulthood. Epigenetic markers are thought to be the link between early exposures and long-term health. With epigenetics we can investigate the processes that affect gene expression without changing the DNA sequence. These mechanisms refer to DNA methylation, histone modification, chromatin structure change, and non-coding microRNAs. The result of these complex mechanisms activated by exogenous (nutritional, environmental) and endogenous (metabolic) factors affects the genotype and phenotype of a living organism.
The purpose of this postgraduate essay is to determine the influence of exogenous factors on human health, such as environmental pollution, heavy metals, chemicals, stress and living conditions, as well as to study the mechanisms that arise during the vulnerable phases of preembryonic, fetal and neonatal life, which can lead in reproductive, metabolic, neurological and immunological problems, even cancer.
Keywords:
Environmental factors, Pollution, Exposure, Pregnancy, Fetal period, Postnatal period, Genetic, Epigenetic, Effect, Pathological conditions
