The prevalence of age-associated disease is increasing at a striking rate globally and there is evidence to suggest that the ageing process may actually begin before birth. It has been well-established that the status of both the maternal and early postnatal environments into which an individual is exposed can have huge implications for the risk of developing age-associated disease, including cardiovascular disease (CVD), type-2 diabetes (T2D) and obesity in later life. Therefore, the dissection of underlying molecular mechanisms to explain this phenomenon, known as 'developmental programming' is a highly investigated area of research. This book chapter will examine the epidemiological evidence and the animal models of suboptimal maternal and early postnatal environments and will discuss the progress being made in the development of safe and effective intervention strategies which ultimately could target those 'programmed' individuals who are known to be at-risk of age-associated disease.
Keywords: Ageing; Developmental programming; Disease; Mechanisms.