A fairly surprising study shows that the great-grandchildren of men who smoked as prepubertal boys are more likely to carry excess fat to their bodies as young women decades later.
discover – Scientists insist Is one of the “first human demonstrations of the cross-generational effects of environmental exposure over four generations”, and ancestral exposure to tobacco smoke and the like can have residual consequences in the family that are not detected throughout the generation. It suggests that there is sex.
“If these associations were identified in other datasets, this used data suitable to begin investigating these associations and to shed light on the origin of potentially significant intergenerational relationships. It will be one of the first human studies. ” To tell Jean Golding, an epidemiologist at the University of Bristol in the United Kingdom.
In 2014, Golding and fellow researchers Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children (Also known as the “Children of the 90’s” study), an observational study of pregnant women and their families. Beginning in the early 1990s, it was initially led by Golding.
The 2014 analysis Questionnaire data from a survey of children in the 90s show that fathers’ sons who started smoking before the age of 11 had a higher body mass index (BMI) during adolescence, with an average waist circumference and whole body. It became clear that is likely to increase. Fat mass.
This was much of the existing evidence of the effects of ancestral exposure, written by Golding and her co-authors, and was a rare example of a non-genetic cross-generational signal inherited by human offspring. Comes from research Involved Animal model..
Now, digging deeper into the dataset of children in the 90’s, we find that this phenomenon extends beyond generations, not only from fathers to sons, but also from grandfathers to granddaughters, and from great-grandfathers to great-grandfathers. increase. granddaughter.
“We are now Paternal Grandfather started smoking before puberty [younger than 13]Granddaughters, not grandchildren, had evidence of excess fat mass at two ages, compared to late childhood (13-16 years old) [17 and 24 years of age],”researcher Explain in their new paper..
“My father maternal My grandfather started smoking before puberty, their great-grandchildren had excess body fat, not great-grandchildren [at 17 and 24].. “
Researchers have stated that similar effects can be seen by intervening generations under the age of 13 without regular smoking, demonstrating intergenerational effects over four generations.
“Exposure of a boy to certain substances before puberty can affect the generations that follow him.” Golding saysOne of the key points of this study is the impact on understanding the health of people today and how it is formed by the invisible impact.
“One of the reasons children get overweight may not be much related to their current diet or exercise, rather than the lifestyle of their ancestors or the sustainability of related factors over the years.”
The team said more research was needed on this phenomenon to understand what was happening here, and they said there was a large amount of missing data in terms of respondents’ perceptions. He admits that his analysis has many limitations: the childhood and circumstances of parents and grandparents.
Nonetheless, they claim that their research provides first evidence of cross-generational effects, but it is still very unclear at this point how those effects will occur.
This may be somehow just a correlation, not the effect caused by exposure to tobacco smoke. Researchers loosely admit that prepubertal smokers in this study may have had a genetic predisposition to obesity that appeared only a few generations downstream.
“It is noteworthy that the associations shown are associated with obesity. Obesity is generally recognized as a complex disorder caused by genetic interactions. Epigenetics, And environmental factors ” Researchers conclude..
“But it is important to look for conclusive evidence from other studies before a hypothesis can be made about the mechanism by which the effects we have shown may have occurred.”
Survey results will be reported at Scientific Reports..
