ReviewPhilosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences2018
The fetal programming of telomere biology hypothesis: an update.
Review in Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences, 2018. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 102 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
102 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it.
- Pooled it
- Maternal and early-life arsenic exposure and relative telomere length in children: Findings from the BiRCH cohort.Environmental research · 2026Article
- Maternal health behavior during pregnancy mediates the relationship between maternal stress and newborn telomere length.Brain, behavior, & immunity - health · 2026Article
- Exposure to Endocrine Disruptors and Stress Hormones Across Pregnancy Trimesters: Links with Maternal Telomere Length.Journal of xenobiotics · 2026Article
- Early-life dentine-based elemental biodynamics and cord blood telomere length.medRxiv : the preprint server for health sciences · 2026Article
- Association of depressive and/or pregnancy-related anxiety symptoms in pregnancy with maternal and neonatal biologic aging.BMC pregnancy and childbirth · 2026Article
- Relative Telomere Length in Leukocytes as a Potential Biomarker of Male Idiopathic Infertility.Bulletin of experimental biology and medicine · 2025Article
- Assortative breeding experiment in a songbird suggests telomere length is determined during early life rather than at conception.Scientific reports · 2025Article
- Correlation of telomere length between full and preterm neonates and their mothers.Experimental and therapeutic medicine · 2025Article
- Article
- Maternal Lifestyle During Pregnancy and Its Influence on Offspring's Telomere Length.Life (Basel, Switzerland) · 2025Review
- Review
- Invited Commentary: "Is physical fitness associated with leukocyte telomere length in youth with type 1 diabetes?"Pediatric research · 2025Article
- Maternal childhood adversity accelerates epigenetic aging of children.Health psychology : official journal of the Division of Health Psychology, American Psychological Association · 2025Article
- Associations between maternal adversity and health and children's telomere length.Translational psychiatry · 2025Article
- Telomere length in offspring is determined by mitochondrial-nuclear communication at fertilization.Nature communications · 2025Article
- A novel carnivorous diet reduces brain telomere length.Biology letters · 2025Article
- A novel carnivorous diet reduces brain telomere length.Biology letters · 2025Article
- A novel carnivorous diet reduces brain telomere length.Biology letters · 2025Article
- Association between shortened maternal and fetal telomere length and abnormal fetal development.PloS one · 2025Article
42 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
4 authors.
Funding
Abstract
Research on mechanisms underlying fetal programming of health and disease risk has focused primarily on processes that are specific to cell types, organs or phenotypes of interest. However, the observation that developmental conditions concomitantly influence a diverse set of phenotypes, the majority of which are implicated in age-related disorders, raises the possibility that such developmental conditions may additionally exert effects via a common underlying mechanism that involves cellular/molecular ageing-related processes. In this context, we submit that telomere biology represents a process of particular interest in humans because, firstly, this system represents among the most salient antecedent cellular phenotypes for common age-related disorders; secondly, its initial (newborn) setting appears to be particularly important for its long-term effects; and thirdly, its initial setting appears to be plastic and under developmental regulation. We propose that the effects of suboptimal intrauterine conditions on the initial setting of telomere length and telomerase expression/activity capacity may be mediated by the programming actions of stress-related maternal-placental-fetal oxidative, immune, endocrine and metabolic pathways in a manner that may ultimately accelerate cellular dysfunction, ageing and disease susceptibility over the lifespan. This perspectives paper provides an overview of each of the elements underlying this hypothesis, with an emphasis on recent developments, findings and future directions.This article is part of the theme issue 'Understanding diversity in telomere dynamics'.
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Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.