Researchers at the UNSW’s School of Medical Sciences and Biotechnology and Biomolecular Sciences, the Garvan Institute, and the University of Adelaide have found that the diet and weight of the father at the time of conception can be risk factors diabetes mellitus for a child in the later years.
The results of the findings are published in the October 2010 issue of the journal Nature. They will be discussed at the New Zealand and Australia Obesity Society meeting in Sydney.
Are Father’s Diet and Weight Risk Factors Diabetes Mellitus for Child?
- The researchers were aware of the fact that overweight during pregnancy played a major role making the child prone to various ailments.
- Though family history of diabetes was one of the known risk factors, the effect of father having this disorder on the child was unclear until now.
- This study for the first time provided a link between obesity in father and diabetes risk in the child.
- As a part of the research study, male mice were fed high fat diet to develop obesity and glucose intolerance.
- These mice were made to mate with normal weight female mice in the laboratory.
- The female offspring was found to develop impaired insulin secretion and glucose tolerance as young adults.
- The researchers believe that in fathers who take high calorie diet epigenetic changes take place in the sperm.
- The result is alteration in the expression and function of genes without any changes in the DNA sequence.
Significance of the Research on Risk Factors Diabetes Mellitus in Child:
The study enhanced the understanding of the role played by environmental factors on a child’s physiology and metabolism. More significantly, it provided a new mechanism by which obesity and diabetes have grown to epidemic levels in the recent times. Further research is focused on verifying the results of the study on male offsprings too.
