Pregnancy, embryo-fetal development and nutrition: physiology around fetal programming

The purpose of this brief narrative review is to highlight the role of nutrition during the gestation period. Wefocused on the possible effects of imbalance of some nutrients in normal course of pregnancy and embryonicdevelopment. We discussed about changes in nutritional and/or hormonal embryonic microenvironment,which represent the basis of a phenomenon known as “fetal programming”. We strongly believe that theunderstanding of these events can be a valuable tool in order to prevent the onset of disorders and diseases inpostnatal life.