Abstract
Light is a crucial environmental signal that affects elements of human health, including the entrainment of circadian rhythms. A suboptimal environment during pregnancy can increase the risk of offspring developing a wide range of chronic diseases in later life. Circadian rhythm disruption in pregnant women may have deleterious consequences for their progeny. In the modern world, maternal chronodisruption can be caused by shift work, jet travel across time zones, mistimed eating, and excessive artificial light exposure at night. However, the impact of maternal chronodisruption on the developmental programming of various chronic diseases remains largely unknown. In this review, we outline the impact of light, the circadian clock, and circadian signaling pathways in pregnancy and fetal development. Additionally, we show how to induce maternal chronodisruption in animal models, examine emerging research demonstrating long-term negative implications for offspring health following maternal chronodisruption, and summarize current evidence related to light and circadian signaling pathway targeted therapies in pregnancy to prevent the development of chronic diseases in offspring.
Highlights
Light provides much of the information that enables organisms to adapt to their environment
We focused on the following areas: the impacts of light and circadian signals in pregnancy and fetal development; human studies for the programming of adult diseases related to maternal chronodisruption; animal models of maternal chronodisruption; mechanisms underlying maternal chronodisruption-induced programmed diseases; and targeting of the light and circadian signaling pathway as a reprogramming therapy to prevent developmental origins of health and disease (DOHaD)-related diseases
In the presence of light, neurons of the suprachiasmatic nucleus (SCN) directly inhibit the neurons in the paraventricular hypothalamic nucleus (PVN) that are responsible for stimulating the pineal gland to secrete melatonin
Summary
Light provides much of the information that enables organisms to adapt to their environment. The developing fetus, if exposed to a suboptimal environment during pregnancy, experiences alterations to normal patterns of growth and development that increase its vulnerability to a wide range of chronic diseases in later life [13] This concept is called the developmental origins of health and disease, or DOHaD [14]. We focused on the following areas: the impacts of light and circadian signals in pregnancy and fetal development; human studies for the programming of adult diseases related to maternal chronodisruption; animal models of maternal chronodisruption; mechanisms underlying maternal chronodisruption-induced programmed diseases; and targeting of the light and circadian signaling pathway as a reprogramming therapy to prevent DOHaD-related diseases
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