New findings about the life-long consequences of sub-optimal development during and after pregnancy will be reported at an international symposium, "Frontiers in Maternal, Fetal and Neonatal Health: Programming for a Lifetime of Good Health," Aug. 9-12 at Cornell University.

International medical researchers will present evidence that virtually all systems of the adult human -- from the lungs, gastrointestinal tract and skeleton to the brain, kidneys, liver and the cardiovascular and immune systems -- are "programmed," for better or worse, by early developmental factors that only parents and health care professionals can control.

"The likelihood of any of us getting coronary artery disease at 50, for example, is programmed in our prenatal development," explained Peter W. Nathanielsz, the Cornell professor of reproductive physiology who organized the symposium. "Our tolerance for exercise at age 60 depends, more than we realized until recently, on development of our lungs 60 years-and-some-months before we climb on that treadmill. And it is too easy to blame brain damage on hypoxia (oxygen deficiency) during labor, when sub-optimal development may be the real cause," said Nathanielsz, the director of the Laboratory for Pregnancy and Newborn Research at Cornell's College of Veterinary Medicine.

Data from epidemiological databases, clinical investigations and experimental animal studies are beginning to demonstrate the critical effects of early development on long-term health, said Nathanielsz, who will present his own laboratory's findings on the influences of the maternal environment and uterine activity on fetal hormones, fetal brain development and blood supply. "These are issues with enormous public-health implications, not only in the care of premature babies with some impairments, but in the well-being of all of us throughout our adult lives," he said.

Dr. David J.P. Barker, author of Mothers, Babies and Disease in Later Life, will open the symposium at 8:30 a.m. Aug. 9. Other topics include nutrition in pregnancy, the placenta, the cardiovascular system, GI tract, the brain, renal function, toxicology and the environment, hormones, lactation and the immune system. A discussion summarizing the presentations is scheduled for 11:15 a.m. Aug. 12.

Frontiers in Maternal, Fetal and Neonatal Health

August 9 - 12, 1996, Cornell University

FRIDAY, AUG. 9

SESSION 1: MATERNAL HEALTH AND NUTRITION: PRECONCEPTION TO DELIVERY

8:30-10:30 a.m. David J.P. Barker, MD

Fetal Origins of Adult Disease

Jeffrey Robinson, MD

Adult Consequences of placental

restriction of fetal growth or ntrauterine

growth retardation

Jane Harding, MB, ChB, DPhil, FRACP

Regulation of nutrition under adverse

circumstances

COFFEE BREAK

SESSION 2: NUTRITION IN PREGNANCY

11 a.m-12:30 p.m. Keith Godfrey, BM, MRCP

Maternal nutrition, placental growth

and adult cardiovascular disease

Julie Owens, PhD

Nutritional programming of fetal and

placental phenotype and later outcomes:

Lessons from the sheep and guinea pig

LUNCH BREAK

SESSION 3: THE PLACENTA:

INTERFACE BETWEEN MATERNAL AND

FETAL NEEDS

2-4 p.m. Jerome F. Strauss III, MD, PhD

Strategies to alter placenta nutrient

transport in vivo

Robert Boyd, MD

Broader implications of placental

transport of small molecules

William W. Hay, Jr., MD

Placental-Fetal interactions:

Regulation of fetal glucose and amino

acid nutrition

COFFEE BREAK

SESSION 4: THE CARDIOVASCULAR SYSTEM: DEVELOPMENT FOR A LIFE-TIME

4:30-6:30 p.m. Kent L. Thornburg PhD

Prenatal heart growth-function

relationships

Mark A. Hanson, DPhil

Development of chemoreceptor and

pressor regulatory systems

Brad Keller, MD

Embryonic cardiovascular functional

maturation: setting the scene

SATURDAY, AUGUST 10

SESSION 5: THE FETAL AND NEONATAL LUNG AND A LIFE-TIME OF BREATHING

8:30-10:30 a.m. Peter H. Burri, MD

Lung development and growth: More

about the critical postnatal period

Jeffrey Whitsett, MD, PhD

Application of transgenic mouse models

to the study of lung development

Alan Jobe, MD, PhD

Translation of basic science to improved

outcomes

COFFEE BREAK

SESSION 6: DEVELOPMENT OF THE GI TRACT: INPUT PORT FOR LIFE-TIME

11 a.m.-12:30 p.m. Richard Grand, MD

Development of gastrointestinal function and neonatal feeding

Michael J. Lentz, MD

Fetal gastrointestinal function: Why and

for what so early?

LUNCH BREAK

FREE AFTERNOON

SESSION 7: THE DEVELOPING BRAIN AND THE ORIGINS OF BEHAVIOR

5-7 p.m. Dick Swaab, MD

Sexual differentiation of the human

hypothalamus

Kirsten Unvas-Moberg, MD

Maternal-Neonatal behavioral

interactions

J.Thomas Brenna, PhD

Transplacental passage of essential fatty

acids and their incorporation into the

fetus

SUNDAY, AUGUST 11

SESSION 8: BRAIN MATURITY AND BRAIN DAMAGE: WHEN DOES IT OCCUR?

8:30-10:30 a.m. Majid Mirmiran, MD

Development of behavioral rhythms

Peter D. Gluckman, MBChB, MMedSC,

DSc, FRSNZ

Prenatal and perinatal brain injury

pathophysiological mechanisms and

therapeutic implications

James Woods, MD

Cocaine's adverse impact in pregnancy:

unifying observation in the human,

large and small animal

COFFEE BREAK

SESSION 9: TOXICOLOGY AND THE ENVIRONMENT: HERE TODAY, STILL HERE TOMORROW

11 a.m-12:30 p.m. Robert M. Abrams, DDS, PhD

Sound and vibration environment of the

fetus

Peter W. Nathanielsz, MD, PhD, ScD

Direct influences of the maternal environment on the fetus, hormones,

blood supply, and uterine activity

LUNCH BREAK

SESSION 10: RENAL FUNCTION: CRITICAL ISSUES IN MOTHER, FETUS, AND NEWBORN

2-4:30 p.m. Eugenie R. Lumbers, PhD

Materno-Fetal interactions in control of

fetal fluid and electrolyte balance

GENERAL DISCUSSION

COFFEE BREAK

SESSION 11: HORMONES, DEVELOPMENT, BIRTH, AND LONG-TERM HEALTH

5-7 p.m. John R.G. Challis, PhD, DSc

Interactions of the fetal and maternal

endocrine and paracrine systems

Stephen J. Lye, PhD

Molecular signals for birth

Lynette Casey

Cytokine-steroid interactions in late

gestation and at birth

MONDAY, AUGUST 12

SESSION 12: LACTATION AND IMMUNITY

8-10:40 a.m. Paul Zimmer, MD

Maternal priorities and the child's

immunological development

Armond S. Goldman, PhD

Early influences that program the

immune system

Joan Hunt, PhD

Impact of pregnancy on the maternal

immune system

Catherine Rivier, PhD

Making it all worthwhile: How the

communication between the immune

system and the endocrine system

determines the offspring's ability to

survive life's traumas

COFFEE BREAK

SESSION 13: GENERAL SUMMARY AND REFLECTIONS: THE ORIGINS OF

HEALTH AND DISEASE

11:15 a.m.-1 p.m. Peter D. Gluckman, MBChB, MMedSC,

DSc, FRSNZ

James Roberts

David Barker, MD