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Hum. Reprod. Advance Access published online on July 25, 2008
Human Reproduction, doi:10.1093/humrep/den274
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© The Author 2008. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the European Society of Human Reproduction and Embryology. All rights reserved. For Permissions, please email: journals.permissions@oxfordjournals.org
The online version of this article has been published under an open access model. Users are entitled to use, reproduce, disseminate, or display the open access version of this article for non-commercial purposes provided that: the original authorship is properly and fully attributed: the Journal and Oxford University Press are attributed as the original place of publication with the correct citation details given: if an article is subsequently reproduced or disseminated not in its entirety but only in part or as a derivative word this must be clearly indicated. For commercial re-use, please contact journals.permissions@oxfordjournals.org

Increased reproductive success of women after prenatal undernutrition

Rebecca C. Painter1, Rudi G.J. Westendorp2, Susanne R. de Rooij1, Clive Osmond3, David J.P. Barker3,4 and Tessa J. Roseboom1,5

1 Department of Clinical Epidemiology, Biostatistics and Bioinformatics, Academic Medical Center at the University of Amsterdam, PO Box 22660, 1100 DD, Amsterdam, The Netherlands 2 Department of Geriatrics and Gerontology, Leiden University Medical Center, Leiden, The Netherlands 3 MRC Epidemiology Resource Centre, University of Southampton, Southampton, UK 4 Heart Research Center, Oregon Health and Science University, OR, USA

5 Correspondence address. E-mail: t.j.roseboom{at}amc.uva.nl

BACKGROUND: Prenatal exposure to the Dutch famine is associated with an increased risk of chronic degenerative disease. We now investigate whether prenatal famine exposure affected reproductive success. METHODS: We assessed reproductive success (number of children, number of twins, age at delivery, childlessness) of men and women born around the time of the Dutch famine of 1944–1945 in the Wilhelmina Gasthuis, Amsterdam, whose birth records have been kept.

RESULTS: Women who were exposed to the Dutch famine of 1944–1945 in utero are more reproductively successful than women who were not exposed to famine during their fetal development; they have more offspring, have more twins, are less likely to remain childless and start reproducing at a younger age. The increased reproductive success of these women is unlikely to be explained by genes which favor fertility and are passed from mothers to their daughters. In utero exposure to famine did not affect the reproductive success of males.

CONCLUSIONS: These findings suggest that poor nutrition during fetal development, followed by improved nutrition after birth can give rise to a female phenotype characterized by greater reproductive success.

Key words: environmental effects/epidemiology/pregnancy

Submitted on April 18, 2008; resubmitted on May 30, 2008; accepted on June 9, 2008.


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