The developmental origins of health and chronic kidney disease: Current status and practices in Japan

The concept of the developmental origins of health and disease (DOHaD) views unfavorable perinatal circumstances as contributing to the development of diseases in later life. It is well known that such unfavorable circumstances play an important role as a risk factor for chronic kidney disease (CKD) in infants born with prematurity. Low birthweight (LBW) is believed to be a potential contributor to CKD in adulthood. Preterm and/or LBW infants are born with incomplete nephrogenesis. As a result, the number of nephrons is low. The poor intrauterine environment also causes epigenetic changes that adversely affect postnatal renal function. After birth, hyperfiltration of individual nephrons due to low nephron numbers causes proteinuria and secondary glomerulosclerosis. Furthermore, the risk of CKD increases as renal damage takes a second hit from exposure to nephrotoxic substances and acquired insults such as acute kidney injury after birth among infants in neonatal intensive care. Meanwhile, unfortunately, recent studies have shown that the number of nephrons in healthy Japanese individuals is approximately two-thirds lower than that in previous reports. This means that Japanese premature infants are clearly at a high risk of developing CKD in later life. Recently, several DOHaD-related CKD studies from Japanese researchers have been reported. Here, we summarize the relevance of CKD in conjunction with DOHaD and review recent studies that have examined the impact of the upward LBW trend in Japan on renal health.