Thickness testify diabetic offspring?

Thickness testify diabetic offspring? One study examined the relationship between diabetes and dietary habits of parents in a series of experiments.

(21.10.2010) High-fat diet of the fathers can cause diabetes in the offspring. To this conclusion, the researchers come to Margaret J. Morris from the University of New South Wales, Sydney in a now in the trade magazine „Nature“ published study. So far, the experts assumed that only the dietary habits of mothers affect the metabolism of children. Animal experiments with rats now prove that it is also dependent on the father's eating habits and that environmental factors can be genetically inherited.

High-fat diet increases the risk of diabetes of the descendants
The Australian scientists used their trial to give high-fat diets to male test rats for extended periods of time, causing them to become overweight and show signs of type II diabetes. After the corresponding rats had mated with healthy females, the offspring was subsequently extensively studied. The scientists limited their investigations to the female offspring in order to rule out gender-specific influencing factors.

The research team led by Margaret J. Morris found that although the animals had a normal body weight in childhood, they later became prone to diabetes and altered gene regulation in the formation of insulin in the pancreas. Accordingly, the high-fat-fed male animals, unusually often conceived female offspring, the morbid insulin-producing cells in themselves. In most female offspring, the typical metabolic disorders of type 2 diabetes were found in adulthood, the scientists said in their recent publication.

Epigenetic effect - environmental influences are inherited
The interesting result of the researchers has caused a stir among the experts internationally, because the so-called epigenetic effect was here for the first time also scientifically proven in relation to the dietary habits of the fathers. The propensity of the female offspring to type II diabetes found in the animal experiment is therefore based on heredity beyond the parent's original genetic disposition. The genes obviously changed later in the course of eating habits.

Here, according to the researchers, the epigenetic effect takes effect. Epigenetics offers an explanatory model for the influence of the environment on our genes. The experts assume that the so-called epigenome, which can also be transmitted to the offspring, changes much more easily in the course of environmental influences than the genome. This is one of the reasons why, for example, people with identical genes differ significantly. Depending on the environmental influences, chemical groups are attached to specific DNA building blocks, which regulate, activate or even shut down genes.

Effects of diet so far only studied for mothers
The influence of the mother on the child, which has been transmitted through the epigenetic effect, has been scientifically clarified for a long time. Studies have shown that male mice are more likely to get diabetic and develop insulin resistance if their mothers are high in fat. In the process, the resistances partly continued into the third generation. In addition, another study has shown that the coat color of offspring of nutritious mothers is changing and that this translates into the second generation and up to the grandchildren. The disposition of the lifestyle and dietary habits of the fathers, has been controversial. So it was a stated goal of the study to find out if the nutritional habits of the father influence the next generation's health. However, since only the female descendants were examined, the influence of dietary habits and lifestyle on the male offspring so far no statement can be made.

Altered sperm through high fat diet
The Australian researchers believe that the epigenetic effect of spermatogenesis has been demonstrated in the current study. The fat consumption of the father animals had changed the sperm, so the explanation of the scientists. Indications speak for an epigenetic change, in which not the DNA itself, but only the expression of the genes and subsequently the epigenome has changed. The high percentage of body fat in the male rats has, among other things, influence on the temperature in the testes and the metabolic disorders of the rat fathers produce by-products, which directly damage the germ cells. Therefore, a high-fat diet of the fathers leads to damage to the sperm, which also result in the daughters diabetes symptoms in adulthood. Thus, certain environmental factors are transmitted through the genetic material and also the lifestyle of the fathers has a significant impact on possible diseases of the children. Therefore, future generations will feel the consequences of our life today on our own body.

Type II diabetes is on the rise worldwide
In type 2 diabetes, different combinations of insulin resistance, hyperinsulinism, relative insulin deficiency and secretory disorders occur, the main cause of the disease is usually caused by overeating, in the course of life greatly increasing, insulin needs. There is also a clear link between adiposity (obesity) - the biggest health risk in western industrialized countries besides smoking - and the risk of diabetes. Among diabetes diseases, type II diabetes is by far the most common disease, accounting for more than 90 percent of cases. More than six million people are affected, according to estimates by the health authorities and the International Diabetes Federation (IDF) in Germany, around 260 million worldwide.

The number is steadily increasing and current estimates suggest that by the year 2030, approximately 400 million people around the world will suffer from type II diabetes. The fact that the dietary habits and the lifestyle of the parents has a significant influence on later illnesses of the children could be of acute importance for the prevention work. Because parents who eat unhealthy endanger not only their own health but also the later offspring. Conversely, a healthy lifestyle strengthens the health of the offspring. In general, the influence of environmental factors on the genetic disposition of certain diseases should no longer be underestimated, as is the current publication „Chronic high-fat diet in fathers programs b-cell dysfunction in female rat offspring "by Margaret J. Morris and colleagues in the journal „Nature“ shows. (Fp)

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Picture: Sigrid Rossmann