Energetic Basis of Correlation Between Catch-Up Growth, Health Maintenance, and Aging

Abstract

Catch-up growth, referring to infants with low birth weight reaching or exceeding normal body weight later in life, is negatively correlated to adult health outcome and life span. Life history theories have suggested that there exist trade-offs between early development and later health maintenance, but detailed mechanisms and the currency of the trade-off are unclear. In this paper, we present a general theoretical model for quantitatively elucidating the trade-off between growth rate and health maintenance in mammals from an energetic viewpoint. Based on the fundamental principles of energy conservation and organisms ' energy budgets, our model analyzes the allocation of metabolic energy to growth and health maintenance in different sets of pre natal and post natal environments. Our model also implies a relationship between growth rate and the general process of aging. Life-span predictions are supported by quantitative and qualitative empirical observations and offer theoretical frameworks for future experimental designs and data analyses.

Department(s)

Biological Sciences

Sponsor(s)

Ellison Medical Foundation
National Institutes of Health (U.S.)

Comments

This work was supported by grants from the Ellison Medical Foundation Senior Scholar Award AG-SS-2235 and NIH grants R01-AG028872 and P01-AG027734.

Keywords and Phrases

Aging; Catch-Up Growth; Energy Trade-Off; Health Maintenance

International Standard Serial Number (ISSN)

1079-5006;0175-8535

Document Type

Article - Journal

Document Version

Citation

File Type

text

Language(s)

English

Rights

© 2011 Hou et al., All rights reserved.

Publication Date

01 Jun 2011

PubMed ID

21393421

Link to Full Text

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