Pediatric Cardiology and Cardiac Surgery
Vol.27 No.5 2011 (209-219)

Tomoo Okada

Department of Pediatrics and Child Heath, Nihon University School of Medicine, Tokyo, Japan

Abstract

Metabolic syndrome (MetS) has been a worldwide epidemic and its occurrence is believed to be a consequence of obesity. In Japanese children, the prevalence of MetS has also increased. Recently, we investigated the fatty acid profile of children with MetS and found that reduced docosahexaenoic acid was associated with elevated stearoyl-CoA desaturase (SCD) activity, which might affect the MetS components. We investigated the postnatal changes in metabolic and hormonal factors including adiponectin, insulin like growth factor-1, and lipoprotein lipase mass, which have close contribution to the development of MetS, and found the association between rapid postnatal increases in these factors and fat accumulation. It is suggested that postnatal nutritional programming might affect the metabolic health in adults. Taken together with these studies, fatty acid nutrition is an important factor in the prevention of MetS all through childhood, from neonates to adolescents.