Molecular Nutrition

Molecular Nutrition: Mother and Infant presents the impact of diet in early life stages, from pre-conception, throughout pregnancy, and to the infant. The book covers the molecular biology of the cell, genetic machinery and its function, general coverage on diet and nutrition, pregnancy, placenta, weight gain, breast milk, feeding practices, gestational disease, glucose metabolism, immunity, vitamins and minerals. Other topics discusses include fetal programming, bioactive compounds, amino acids, intrauterine growth, one carbon metabolism, overnutrition, genetic risk factors, polymorphisms, folic acid genes, DNA methylation, genes involved in lipid metabolism, microRNAs, epigenetics, transcriptomics and micro RNA.

This book will be a welcomed reference for research scientists and practitioners, including nutritionists and dieticians.

• Addresses mother and infant nutrition and its critical impact on the well-being of humankind
• Contains coverage from pre-conception to young offspring
• Includes pedagogical features (e.g. a list of key facts, mini-dictionaries of terms and definitions, and summary points) to assist in its use as a reference
• Contains coverage of emerging fields of molecular biology and important discoveries related to diet and nutritional health

Health scientists, clinicians, healthcare professionals, nutritionists, dieticians, teachers, lecturers and advanced students in nutritional sciences, policy makers, pediatricians, and obstetricians

Part 1: General and Introductory Aspects
1. Diet and maternal nutrition: an overview
2. Placenta metabolism
3. Pregnancy and weight gain
4. Breast milk feeding and impact on the infant: an overview
5. Feeding practices of infants
6. Nutritionally-driven gestational diseases and impact on health of the mother and infant
7. Glucose metabolism and pregnancy
8. Immune aspects of pregnancy and role of nutrition
9. Vitamin status in pregnancy and newborns
10. Fatty acid intake during perinatal periods
11. Mineral in pregnancy and newborns
12. Perinatal interventions; current and future perspectives
13. Perinatal nutrition and obesity

Part 2: Molecular Biology of the Cell
14. Molecular aspects of fetal programming
15. Molecular aspects of dietary bioactive compounds in pregnancy
16. Amino acid transporters and protein metabolism in intrauterine growth (can focus on a single or groups of amino acids such as tryptophan)
17. Maternal micronutrients and one carbon metabolism
18. Overnutrition and mitochondrial function
19. mTOR, insulin/IGF-I signalling in relation to nutrients in pregnancy
20. Maternal high fat diet and molecular aspects of vascular function
21. Caffeine exposure and CNS developmental processes

Part 3: Genetic Machinery and Its Function
22. Genetic risk factors in nutrient metabolism and fetal development
23. Pregnancy loss and polymorphisms in folic acid genes
24. Maternal vitamins and DNA methylation and implications for offspring (may want to focus on B vitamins)
25. Maternal obesity, and genes involved in lipid metabolism
26. Diet in lactation periods and impact on cancer: genetic aspects of mammary tissue
27. Maternal diet consumption and microRNAs
28. Vitamins (example of vitamin D) in pregnancy and gene expression
29. Epigenetic changes associated to different fat consumption
30. Epigenetic genes and maternal obesity
31. Transcriptomics of cord blood and implications for nutrition and diet
32. Maternal undernutrition and organ microRNAs
33. Genomic imprinting and fetal development (to link with nutrition and growth)
34. Nutritional influence on miRNA epigenetic regulation