Transient epigenomic changes during pregnancy and early postpartum in women with and without type 2 diabetes.

Aim: To investigate epigenomic changes in pregnancy and early postpartum in women with and without type 2 diabetes.

Methods: Dimethylation of histones H3K4, H3K9, H3K27, H3K36 and H3K79 was measured in white blood cells of women at 30 weeks pregnancy, at 8-10 and 20 weeks postpartum and in never-pregnant women.

Results: Dimethylation levels of all five histones were different between women in pregnancy and early postpartum compared with never-pregnant women and were different between women with and without type 2 diabetes.

Epigenetic Markers to Predict Conversion From Gestational Diabetes to Type 2 Diabetes.

Context: Lifestyle factors mediate epigenetic changes that can cause chronic diseases. Although animal and laboratory studies link epigenetic changes to diabetes, epigenetic information in women with gestational diabetes (GDM) and type 2 diabetes is lacking.

Objective: This study sought to measure epigenetic markers across pregnancy and early postpartum and identify markers that could be used as predictors for conversion from GDM to type 2 diabetes.

Can scientists and policy makers work together?

This paper addresses a fundamental question in evidence based policy making--can scientists and policy makers work together? It first provides a scenario outlining the different mentalities and imperatives of scientists and policy makers, and then discusses various issues and solutions relating to whether and how scientists and policy makers can work together. Scientists and policy makers have different goals, attitudes toward information, languages, perception of time, and career paths. Important issues affecting their working together include lack of mutual trust and respect, different views on the production and use of evidence, different accountabilities, and whether there should be a link between science and policy.

A public health model of the social determinants of health.

As we move forward in the new century, epidemiologists and public health practitioners are faced with the challenge of reviewing the current direction of epidemiology and its links with public health. While the history of epidemiology has been a successful and productive one, there is a danger that modern epidemiology is becoming too narrow in its scope, concerned primarily with the analysis of risk factors in individuals, while ignoring sociological and ecological perspectives of health. We argue that a theoretical framework to guide the practice of epidemiology is needed which encompasses a role for social determinants of health while simultaneously also acknowledging the importance of behaviour and biology, and the inter-connectedness of all these factors.