Association between offspring birth weight and atherosclerosis in middle aged men and women: British Regional Heart Study.

Low birth weight is associated with cardiovascular disease in adulthood, but the mechanisms underlying these associations remain unclear. One possibility is that poor intrauterine nutrition “programmes” adult disease. An alternative hypothesis is that specific polymorphisms with pleiotrophic effects result in both small birth size and cardiovascular disease risk. Epidemiological evidence for a genetic role in the association comes from the recent finding that offspring birth weight predicts parental cardiovascular disease risk. 4 As an infant’s low birth weight cannot determine its own parents’ risk of cardiovascular disease through intrauterine programming, a plausible explanation for these trans-generational associations is that of a common genetic link. In this paper we investigate the associations between offspring birth weight and parental carotid intima media thickness, an indicator of pre-clinical disease.