Role of nutrition in the development of the fetal cardiovascular system.

Emerging evidence demonstrates that heart disease may originate during fetal development. This review will focus on the role of maternal nutrition in the development of the fetal cardiovascular system. Emphasis will be placed upon the concept that nutritional inadequacies during gestation may be major programming stimuli that alter fetal cardiac, as well as vascular, physiology and predispose an individual to cardiovascular abnormalities in postnatal life. It is hypothesized that this research area will yield new information, resulting in improved fetal nutrition, growth and development through efficient maternal nutrition before and during pregnancy and will form the basis for nutritional strategies for the primary prevention of cardiovascular disease.