Programmed Adult Kidney Disease: Importance of Fetal Environment

The Barker hypothesis strongly supported the influence of fetal environment on the development of chronic diseases in later life. Multiple experimental and human studies have identified that the deleterious effect of fetal programming commonly leads to alterations in renal development. The interplay between environmental insults and fetal genome can induce epigenetic changes and lead to alterations in the expression of renal phenotype. In this review, we have explored the renal development and its functions, while focusing on the epigenetic findings and functional aspects of the renin-angiotensin system and its components.