A new research from Duke Medicine is the first of a kind that looked at risk factors which may influence a child's health due to father's obesity, according to a Science Daily report.
The study suggests that father's obesity can be one of the significant risk factors that may impact a child's health. Researchers looked at any link between obesity in parents and changes in DNA methylation among children.
"Understanding the risks of the current Western lifestyle on future generations is important," said molecular biologist Adelheid Soubry, PhD, a postdoctoral associate at Duke Cancer Institute and the study's lead author, according to the report. "The aim of this study was to determine potential associations between obesity in parents prior to conception and epigenetic profiles in offspring, particularly at certain gene regulatory regions."
Previous studies explained various risk factors during pregnancy that influence a child's health. However, this study focuses on paternal factors influencing child's health. Changes in DNA methylation can increase the risk of certain diseases as it controls activity of certain genes such as insulin-like growth factor 2 (IGF2) gene. Reduction of the DNA methylation in the IGF2 gene can increase the risk of certain chronic diseases including colorectal and ovarian cancers, reports Science Daily.
"Our genes are able to adapt to our environment. However, we adjust in a way that may be problematic later," said Cathrine Hoyo, PhD, MPH, a cancer epidemiologist at Duke Medicine and the study's senior author. "It is not a change in the sequence of the DNA itself, but how genes are expressed. Some genes may get 'shut off' as a result of environmental trauma."
Researchers gathered data using the families who participated in the Newborn Epigenetics Study (NEST), a program used to check the impact of environmental exposures in newborns. To further analyze the link between the child's DNA methylation pattern and parental obesity, DNA from 79 newborns' umbilical cords was examined, says the report.
The results showed that DNA methylation in the children whose fathers were obese was lower compared to those fathers who were not obese. Hence lower DNA methylation increases the risk of developing certain type of cancers.
"This study is an important start in looking at the effects of environmental exposure on children, not only through the mother but also through the father," said Soubry. "Although we cannot define at this point which obesity-related factor may cause an epigenetic effect, we measured in this study a significant association between paternal obesity and aberrant methylation profiles in the offspring."
The study is published in an online journal BMC Medicine.
