Figure 1.

Schematic diagram illustrating the link between maternal nutrition during the perinatal period and adult metabolic health. Energy restriction during gestation and/or lactation may impact the developmental programming of energy balance in the offspring, depending on factors such as the type, duration, period, and severity of conditions. Mechanisms underlying these effects may include changes in the postnatal pattern of leptin, development of key structures such as the hypothalamus and the peripheral nervous system (which in turn may also be influenced by leptin), and epigenetic modifications. These changes in offspring may have long-term consequences in the susceptibility to obesity and other metabolic alterations by affecting the capacity to regulate energy balance, leptin and/or insulin sensitivity, feeding behavior and/or body composition.