Figure 1.
Schematic diagram depicting the potential pathway from maternal pre-pregnancy LDL-C to adult offspring LDL-C via in utero exposure and epigenetic transmission with confounding by shared lifestyle factors, anthropometrics and inherited genetic variants. Paternal pre-pregnancy LDL-C (B) exhibits similar pathways except for the in utero exposures and subsequent epigenetic modifications. Concurrent parental LDL-C (C) shares an adulthood environment and genetic variants. Neither comparison group would be expected to demonstrate an association between parental and offspring LDL-C due to in utero LDL-C exposure after adjusting for the confounding pathways.