Using neonatal skin to study the developmental programming of aging

• Type of Material: Article
• Authors: Leryn J. Reynolds, University of Kentucky; Brett J. Dickens, University of Kentucky; Benjamin B. Green, Dartmouth College; Carmen Marsit, Emory University; Kevin J. Pearson, University of Kentucky
• Language: English
• Date: 2017-08-01
• Publisher: Elsevier: 12 months
• Publication Version: Author Accepted Manuscript (After Peer Review)
• Copyright Statement: © 2016 Elsevier Inc.
• License: Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 4.0 International
• Final Published Version (URL): http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.exger.2016.12.015
• Title of Journal or Parent Work: Experimental Gerontology
• ISSN: 0531-5565
• Volume: 94
• Start Page: 93
• End Page: 98
• Grant/Funding Information: Funding was provided by the Graduate Center for Nutritional Sciences at the University of Kentucky (K.J.P.) and the National Institutes of Health (R01ES022223 to C.J.M).; Leryn Reynolds was supported by an American Heart Association Post-Doctoral Fellowship (15POST25110002).
• Keywords: OBESITY; DISEASE; Science & Technology; DOHaD; Geriatrics & Gerontology; LIFE-SPAN; LONGEVITY; FIBROBLASTS; Epigenetics; ADIPOGENIC DIFFERENTIATION; Obesity; METABOLIC SYNDROME; Life Sciences & Biomedicine; MICE; EXPOSURE; Adipogenesis; Insulin sensitivity; CATCH-UP GROWTH; Pregnancy
• Research Categories: Health Sciences, Epidemiology; Health Sciences, Public Health; Health Sciences, Pharmacology

Abstract

Numerous studies have examined how both negative and positive maternal exposures (environmental contaminants, nutrition, exercise, etc.) impact offspring risk for age-associated diseases such as obesity, type 2 diabetes, hypertension, and others. The purpose of this study was to introduce the foreskin as a novel model to examine developmental programming in human neonates, particularly in regard to adipogenesis and insulin receptor signaling, major contributors to age-associated diseases such as obesity and diabetes. Neonatal foreskin was collected following circumcision and primary dermal fibroblasts were isolated to perform adipocyte differentiation and insulin stimulation experiments. Human neonatal foreskin primary fibroblasts take up lipid when stimulated with a differentiation cocktail and demonstrate insulin signaling when stimulated with insulin. Thus, we propose that foreskin tissue can be used to study developmental exposures and programming that occur in the neonate as it relates to age-associated diseases such as obesity and diabetes.