Fig. 2 |. The maternal exposome and low-grade systemic chronic inflammation.
Maternal lifestyle and environmental exposures—collectively referred to as the exposome—include diet, physical activity, psychological stress and exposure to various xenobiotics, such as pollutants and smoking during intrauterine life. These factors in turn can influence the programming of the immune system of the offspring, potentially leading to a more pro-inflammatory phenotype later in life. Relevant factors, including environmental factors such as poor access to healthy food, housing insecurity, psychological stress and polluted air, lead to a mother giving birth to a fetus with epigenetic marks that increase the child’s risk for obesity, low-grade SCI and its associated consequences in adolescence and adulthood.