The adverse health impact of these exposures is thought to be mediated by reprogramming of normal physiologic responses, and forms the basis of the developmental origins of health and disease (DOHaD) paradigm 5, 6. These findings demonstrate the importance of epigenome:environment interactions, which early in life accelerate epigenomic aging, and later in adulthood unlock metabolically restricted epigenetic reprogramming to drive metabolic dysfunction.Įnvironmental exposures during early life exert a profound influence on developing organs, which can affect health across the life-course, and even transgenerationally 1, 2, 3, 4. Diet-dependent metabolic disruption was largely driven by reprogramming of the Early Growth Response 1 (EGR1) transcriptome and production of metabolites in pathways linked to cholesterol, lipid and one-carbon metabolism.

This epigenomic reprogramming persists long after the initial exposure, but many reprogrammed genes remain transcriptionally silent with their impact on metabolism not revealed until a later life exposure to a Western-style diet.

Using a rat model for exposure to an endocrine disrupting chemical (EDC), we show that early-life chemical exposure causes metabolic dysfunction in adulthood and reprograms histone marks in the developing liver to accelerate acquisition of an adult epigenomic signature. Our early-life environment has a profound influence on developing organs that impacts metabolic function and determines disease susceptibility across the life-course.

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