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IJE Advance Access originally published online on November 26, 2004
International Journal of Epidemiology 2004 33(6):1167-1171; doi:10.1093/ije/dyh389
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IJE vol.33 no.6 © International Epidemiological Association 2004; all rights reserved.

Editorial

Biological theories, evidence, and epidemiology

David A Leon

London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, Keppel Street, London WC1E 7HT, UK. E-mail: David.leon@lshtm.ac.uk

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

Earlier this year a distinguished group of biologists and biomedical researchers wrote a hypothesis paper that appeared in the prestigious science journal Nature.1 Its title was Developmental plasticity and human health. Elaborating ideas published in this journal in 2001,2 the Nature paper set out to establish the basic biological principles underlying the early-life origins of coronary heart disease and type II diabetes.3 A similar paper in the US journal Science has appeared more recently.4

The concept of developmental plasticity overlaps with the notion of early-life programming as initially defined by Lucas,5 although it is more general and its origins are elaborated in terms of evolutionary biology. It is based on the notion that ‘a given genotype can give rise to different phenotypes depending on environmental conditions. ... The varied developmental pathways triggered by environmental events may be induced during sensitive, often brief periods in development. Outside these sensitive periods . . . [Full Text of this Article]

A generalized thrifty phenotype

Evidence for fetal adaptation in humans

Unequivocal evidence of impact of fetal nutrition

Buffering and maternal–offspring conflict

Advantages of being small or being fat?

What does this mean for epidemiology?


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