Maternal diet and weight can impact their child's health even before birth – but so can a father's, shows a study published in BioMed Central's open access journal BMC Medicine. Hypomethylation of the gene coding for the Insulin-like growth factor 2, (IGF2),in newborns correlates to an increased risk of developing cancer later in life, and, for babies born to obese fathers, there is a decrease in the amount of DNA methylation of IGF2 in foetal cells isolated from cord blood.
As part of the Newborn Epigenetics Study (NEST) at Duke University Hospital, information was collected about parental weight and compared to their newborn's epigenetic data. DNA contains the genetic information which is inherited from their parents by children but epigenetic imprinting, such as DNA methylation, controls how active these genes are.
IGF2 codes for a growth factor that is important mainly during foetal development; aberrant control of this gene, including DNA hypomethylation, has been implicated in cancer. The researchers found that IGF2 was hypomethylated in newborns with obese fathers, but not obese mothers.
Dr Adelheid Soubry who led this study explained, "During spermatogenesis some regions in the DNA may be sensitive to environmental damage; these effects can be transmitted to the next generation. It is possible that (mal)nutrition or hormone levels in obese fathers, leads to incomplete DNA methylation or to unstable genomic imprinting of sperm cells. Further research is necessary to confirm our findings."
Dr Cathrine Hoyo from NEST continued, "In general, epigenetic marks are reprogrammed while sperm and eggs are being formed, and consequently nutrition, lifestyle or environment of the parents at this point in time can have a direct effect on a child's development and subsequent health."
Media Contact
Dr Hilary Glover
Scientific Press Officer, BioMed Central
Tel: +44 (0) 20 3192 2370
Mob: +44 (0) 778 698 1967
Email: hilary.glover@biomedcentral.com
Notes
1. Paternal obesity is associated with IGF2 hypomethylation in newborns: results from a Newborn Epigenetics Study (NEST) cohort Adelheid Soubry, Joellen M Schildkraut, Amy Murtha, Frances Wang, Zhiqing Huang, Autumn Bernal, Joanne Kurtzberg, Randy L Jirtle, Susan K Murphy and Cathrine Hoyo BMC Medicine (in press)
Please name the journal in any story you write. If you are writing for the web, please link to the article. All articles are available free of charge, according to BioMed Central's open access policy.
Article citation and URL available on request on the day of publication.
2. BMC Medicine is the flagship medical journal of the BMC series, publishing original research, commentaries and reviews that are either of significant interest to all areas of medicine and clinical practice, or provide key translational or clinical advances in a specific field. @BMCMedicine
3. BioMed Central is an STM (Science, Technology and Medicine) publisher which has pioneered the open access publishing model. All peer-reviewed research articles published by BioMed Central are made immediately and freely accessible online, and are licensed to allow redistribution and reuse. BioMed Central is part of Springer Science+Business Media, a leading global publisher in the STM sector. @BioMedCentral
4. BioMed Central, in conjunction with its journal Epigenetics & Chromatin, is hosting the inaugural conference "Epigenetics & Chromatin: Interactions and processes" at Harvard Medical School in Boston, USA from 11 March 2013. @Epigenchromatin #eac2013
Journal
BMC Medicine