Predicting future risk of heart disease in children

Epigenetic biomarkers and determinants of cardiovascular risk in children

Professor Mark Hanson and his team at the University of Southampton are studying how a mother’s diet and behaviour affects her child’s risk of heart and circulatory disease in the future. As part of the Southampton Women’s Survey, Professor Hanson has studied a group of women and their offspring since before they were conceived until the children were eight years old. He discovered that aspects of the mother’s diet and behaviour during pregnancy affect a child’s growth, amount of body fat and their risk factors for heart and circulatory disease. A concept called epigenetics explains this phenomenon - where the environment affects whether our genes are turned on or off to change their function. Professor Hanson has discovered biomarkers that tag particular genes that predict heart and circulatory disease in later life. In this project, Professor Hanson will determine how these biomarkers affect heart and blood vessel structure and function in the children, who are now 12 years old. He will search for genes linked to their heart fitness and risk of heart and circulatory disease. This research will reveal biomarkers of heart and circulatory disease risk in childhood that can help us design interventions to reduce the risk, and the best time to deliver them - either before birth or in childhood.