Food, growth and time: Elsie Widdowson's and Robert McCance's research into prenatal and early postnatal growth
Food, growth and time: Elsie Widdowson's and Robert McCance's research into prenatal and early postnatal growth
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DOI：
10.1016/j.shpsc.2013.12.001
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发表时间：
2014-09-01
影响因子：
0.9
通讯作者：
Buklijas, Tatjana
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
Buklijas, Tatjana
剑桥大学的科学家Robert McCance和Elsie Widdowson最出名的是他们对英国餐桌和战时食物配给的研究，但他们对产前和产后早期生长的研究，今天被视为研究环境对产前发育的影响以及因此对成人疾病的影响的基础。在这篇文章中，我将McCance和Widdowson在20世纪40年代和50年代的人类实验研究置于战前对胎儿生长和发育的关注的背景下，特别是在生物化学，生理学和农业方面；第二次世界大战和战后关注的是怀孕期间营养不良对胎儿的影响。我将Widdowson和McCance关于早期营养不良的长期影响的研究与战后欧洲对早期创伤恢复的关注以及敏感（关键）时期（一个在不同领域都非常重要的概念）联系起来。最后，我讨论了在胎儿生理学与不同的问题和强调胎儿自主性的中断之后，对环境对产前生长和发育的影响的兴趣如何在20世纪末恢复。我认为，“健康和疾病的发育起源”这个新领域提供了一个背景，使Widdowson和McCance的工作重新获得重视。(C) 2013 Elsevier Ltd.版权所有。
Cambridge scientists Robert McCance and Elsie Widdowson are best known for their work on the British food tables and wartime food rations, but it is their research on prenatal and early postnatal growth that is today seen as a foundation of the fields studying the impact of environment upon prenatal development and, consequently, adult disease. In this essay I situate McCance's and Widdowson's 1940s human and 1950s experimental studies in the context of pre-war concerns with fetal growth and development, especially within biochemistry, physiology and agriculture; and the Second World War and post-war focus on the effects of undernutrition during pregnancy upon the fetus. I relate Widdowson's and McCance's research on the long-term effects of early undernutrition to the concern with recovery from early trauma so pertinent in post-war Europe and with sensitive (critical) periods, a concept of high importance across different fields. Finally I discuss how, following a hiatus in which fetal physiology engaged with different questions and stressed fetal autonomy, interest in the impact of environment upon prenatal growth and development revived towards the end of the twentieth century. The new field of "developmental origins of health and disease", I suggest, has provided a context in which Widdowson's and McCance's work has regained importance. (C) 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.