Evidence for a sensitive period of plasticity in brown adipose tissue during early childhood among indigenous Siberians
| Autor: | Valentina I. Fedorova, Afanasiy I. Fedorov, William R. Leonard, Tatiana M. Klimova, Stephanie B Levy, Marina E. Baltakhinova, R.N. Zakharova |
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| Rok vydání: | 2021 |
| Předmět: |
Male
0106 biological sciences Period (gene) Disease Biology 010603 evolutionary biology 01 natural sciences Adipose Tissue Brown Human biology Brown adipose tissue medicine Humans 0601 history and archaeology Early childhood Child Retrospective Studies 060101 anthropology Temperature Thermogenesis 06 humanities and the arts medicine.anatomical_structure Child Preschool Anthropology Developmental plasticity Female Anatomy Adaptation Demography |
| Zdroj: | American Journal of Physical Anthropology. 175:834-846 |
| ISSN: | 1096-8644 0002-9483 |
| DOI: | 10.1002/ajpa.24297 |
| Popis: | Objectives Evolutionary theorists have debated the adaptive significance of developmental plasticity in organisms with long lifespans such as humans. This debate in part stems from uncertainty regarding the timing of sensitive periods. Does sensitivity to environmental signals fluctuate across development or does it steadily decline? We investigated developmental plasticity in brown adipose tissue (BAT) among indigenous Siberians in order to explore the timing of phenotypic sensitivity to cold stress. Methods BAT thermogenesis was quantified using infrared thermal imaging in 78 adults (25 men; 33 women). Cold exposure during gestation, infancy, early childhood, middle childhood, and adolescence was quantified using: (1) the average ambient temperature across each period; (2) the number of times daily temperature dropped below -40°F during each period. We also assessed past cold exposure with a retrospective survey of participation in outdoor activities. Results Adult BAT thermogenesis was significantly associated with the average temperature (p = 0.021), the number of times it was below -40°F (p = 0.026), and participation in winter outdoor activities (p = 0.037) during early childhood. Conclusions Our results suggest that early childhood represents an important stage for developmental plasticity, and that culture may play a critical role in shaping the timing of environmental signals. The findings highlight a new pathway through which the local consequences of global climate change may influence human biology, and they suggest that ambient temperature may represent an understudied component of the developmental origins of health and disease. |
| Databáze: | OpenAIRE |
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