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Lifestyles of parents burdened the genes overweight and diabetes hereditary
It has long been known that expectant mothers should eat healthily and not smoke in order to avoid health risks to the child. However, scientific studies meanwhile show that this is not enough for a long time. Already the lifestyle before conception can influence the offspring.
Expectant parents should live well before procreation
It has long been known that expectant mothers should live as healthy as possible so as not to endanger their child. So there are recommendations on what may or may not be on the menu during pregnancy. In addition, a tobacco and alcohol taboo is generally valid. ("Https://www.heilpraxisnet.de/naturheilpraxis/fatale-folgen-alkohol-tabu-fuer-muetter-ist-vielen-unbekannt-2015053137364") However, scientific studies meanwhile indicate that following this advice is not enough , As the news agency dpa reports, the eating habits of the father before conception and the way of life of the parents as a whole also affect the offspring. Obesity (obesity) and type 2 diabetes can therefore be inherited. In addition, children's asthma risk is increased if the fathers were smokers during conception.
Image: Africa Studio - fotolia Inheritance from generation to generation
It is said that while smoking or fat and unhealthy diets do not change genes themselves, the mode of action and regulation of certain gene sequences is affected - and these epigenetic factors are hereditary too. Thomas Meitinger, director of the Institute of Human Genetics at the Munich University Hospital on the right bank of the river Isar, said in the agency message: "There is no doubt that it is inherited from generation to generation not only of pure gene sequences but also of gene regulation bandwidth "This would have been animal experiments. Studies in humans are much more difficult, not least because of the long generation times.
Maternal influence in overweight greater
Up to now, the influence of the paternal side has been studied by scientists. If only because sperm are easier to win and examine than oocytes. A study published in the journal "Nature Genetics" with mice shows that the maternal influence in overweight and diet-related diabetes is even greater than the paternal. "What the parents at the time before pregnancy have for a constitution plays on the next generation," explained the initiator of the study and director of the Institute for Experimental Genetics (IEG) at Helmholtz Zentrum München, Martin Hrabě de Angelis.
High-fat diet of the father with negative effects
Although the rule of thumb is "fat parents, fat children" known, but the argument of many Dicker, it was "on the genes" was too often interpreted as an excuse. "Now it is clear that this is really communicated via the germ cells," says Hrabě de Angelis. "The effect is massive, at least in animal experiments." He went on to say: "This could be another cause of the epidemic-like increase in type 2 diabetes." The increase worldwide can hardly be explained by the change in the DNA itself. "In addition, the increase is progressing too fast." Only a few months ago, American researchers in the journal "Science" had reported on a study with mice male, which showed that a high-fat diet of the father can negatively affect the metabolism of the offspring. Earlier, scientists from Copenhagen had shown that the susceptibility to obesity in humans can be passed on to the next generation. In both cases, the researchers found epigenetic changes in sperm involving, for example, the regulation of appetite control genes.
Even children of ex-smokers have a higher risk of asthma
Furthermore, a study by the Norwegian University in Bergenwies showed that children of ex-smokers have a considerably higher risk of asthma, even if the fathers stopped using the truck long before they were conceived. Thus, those who smoked for more than 10 years before conception increased their children's asthma risk by 50 percent. The scientists in Munich used according to dpa now animals that had become overweight due to high-fat diet and had developed a type 2 diabetes. It has been reported that their offspring were bred using artificial insemination and delivered by surrogate mothers. Thus, factors such as the diet of the embryo in the uterus of a metabolically disturbed fat mother, but also their behavior during pregnancy and suckling were excluded. "We see that there is a massive impact on the next generation, which can only be mediated through the germ cells. And we see different effects in terms of the maternal and the paternal side, "said Hrabě de Angelis.
Good lifestyles pay off for the descendants
Study leader Johannes Beckers suggested that even Darwin included in his theories on heredity and evolution the possibility that parents could pass on acquired traits to their descendants during their lifetime. It is also believed that even mental strains such as war traumas or genotype crimes continue to live in the next generation. A few years ago, US scientists at the Emory University School of Medicine in Atlanta showed that negative experiences of grandparents affect the behavior and central nervous structures of grandchildren. The animal grandchildren inherit the psychological burden.
The rodents learned by electric shock that the smell of acetophenone promises bad things. The researchers also reported that the grandsons twitched at the sweet smell, even though they did not receive electric shocks. Does the unhealthy behavior of the parents over the generations, it would mean in reverse, yes: a good lifestyle pays off for the offspring. Epigenetic inheritance, unlike genetic inheritance, is in principle reversible. With a corresponding lifestyle, obesity and type 2 diabetes could decrease over the generations. Hrabě de Angelis said: "That gives hope." (Ad)