Poor Nutrition In The Womb Causes Permanent Genetic Changes In Offspring

[n2doc]

ScienceDaily (Apr. 14, 2009) — The new science of epigenetics explains how genes can be modified by the environment, and a prime result of epigenetic inquiry has just been published online in The FASEB Journal: You are what your mother did not eat during pregnancy. In the research report, scientists from the University of Utah show that rat fetuses receiving poor nutrition in the womb become genetically primed to be born into an environment lacking proper nutrition.

As a result of this genetic adaptation, the rats were likely to grow to smaller sizes than their normal counterparts. At the same time, they were also at higher risk for a host of health problems throughout their lives, such as diabetes, growth retardation, cardiovascular disease, obesity, and neurodevelopmental delays, among others. Although the study involved rats, the genes and cellular mechanisms involved are the same as those in humans.

"Our study emphasizes that maternal–fetal health influences multiple healthcare issues across generations," said Robert Lane, professor of pediatric neonatology at the University of Utah, and one of the senior researchers involved in the study. "To reduce adult diseases such as diabetes, obesity, and cardiovascular disease, we need to understand how the maternal–fetal environment influences the health of offspring."

The scientists made this discovery through experiments involving two groups of rats. The first group was normal. The second group had the delivery of nutrients from their mothers' placentas restricted in a way that is equivalent to preeclampsia. The rats were examined right after birth and again at 21 days (21 days is essentially a preadolescent rat) to measure the amount of a protein, called IGF-1, that promotes normal development and growth in rats and humans. They found that the lack of nutrients caused the gene responsible for IGF-1 to significantly reduce the amount of IGF-1 produced in the body before and after birth.

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/04/090413150743.htm

[aquart]

1. Are they saying preeclampsia is the result of poor nutrition?

My sister died because my mother, or my grandmother, didn't eat?

[Warpy]

3. equivalent to preeclampsia

Gotta read all the words.

[truedelphi]

4. There is a link between preeclampsia and magnesium deficient diet n/t

[Lydia Leftcoast]

8. Also, for years

pregnant women were told that they had to keep their weight down during pregnancy. My mother caught hell from her obstetrician because she gained 20 pounds during her pregnancies. She was "supposed" to gain only 15, and she struggled to keep her weight gain to 20.

Then someone in the 1970s or 1980s (I forget exactly when) figured out that the fetus, the amniotic fluid, the placenta, and everything else add up to twenty-five pounds by themselves.

In other words, doctors were expecting women to lose weight off their own bodies during their pregnancies and telling them that they were risking all sorts of dire consequences if they didn't.

[truedelphi]

9. Get this: in the early1960's, it was the fad to have pregnant

Women on amphetamines. When Jackie Kennedy's third child, Patrick, was born with underdevelopped lungs, it was on account of the prevalent medical thinking. Like you say, gaining weight was a big no-no.

[Why Syzygy]

10. Crickey!

I gained 36 pounds (1978). I'm glad they got over that bad advice before I carried. :wow:

[Mamacrat]

13. Low weight in pregnancy.

Yes, my mother weighed 110 pounds the day I was born. She is only 5'2", but still... That was the common thinking back then.

[NickB79]

16. A friend of mine actually LOST 20 lbs while pregnant!

Her a-hole husband was so controlling and abusive that he prevented her from eating. Admittedly, she was clinically obese, but that doesn't warrant a starvation diet while pregnant.

Her child now has mental development problems. Go figure.

[Mamacrat]

14. Magnesium

I've read recently that giving magnesium to women with this condition right before or during labor can greatly reduce problems such as Cerebral Palsy in the child. Such a simple thing to do, yet doctors do not always do it.

[truedelphi]

15. These problems in part were unravelled because

During the height of the "Sixties" Peace Corps aid to third world nations, health workers in the field started to realize that women out in the bush didn't have babies with Cerebral palsy, nor did they suffer from preclampsia.

When every meal a woman ate included the eating of the leaves of the "plate" the food was served on, the diet was naturally high in magnesium, iron and folic acid.

[LeftishBrit]

11. Preeclampsia can *cause* poor nutrition in the unborn baby...

because it affects blood flow in the placenta.

I am sorry about your sister.

[mike_c]

2. as I read this it does not suggest genetic change so much as...

...a potentially adaptive change in gene expression, i.e. the epigenetic response was already part of the rat genome, ready to respond to a situation routinely encountered by rat populations throughout their evolution-- low nutrient availability.

A shift in gene expression, even if it lasts multiple generations, is not a "permanent genetic change" at the genome level. It's more a permanent proteonomic change at the proteome level, IMO.

[azul]

6. Take a look at this website for information, if you please:

http://www.epidna.com/

[azul]

5. I've been spouting about this for awhile, with regards to curing diseases

instead of treating the symptoms. Fund epigenetic research to the hilt.

It has major implications for the costs of healthcare in the future and may make all the financial predictions obsolete.

This is where the funding and effort should be focused. What would happen to healthcare costs and growth of the industry if cancers and cardiovascular diseases and diabetes and obesity were prevented and cured?

Might be hope to balance the next generations' budgets and ease their unearned financial obligations.

[heidler1]

7. The ill effects of poor nutrition on IQ and everything else have been known for many years.

The whole concept of poverty being cultural is obviously a BS way of approving poor nutrition for the less competitive members of society. FDR was severally criticized for trying to break this cycle. Republicans appear to want this underclass to exploit. Of course there are still going to be people who lag behind, but prayer without daily proper nutrition won't cut it.

[LeftishBrit]

12. Interesting. I think the effects of prenatal nutrition have been badly underestimated.

[Systematic Chaos]

17. Then Jebus help the Duggars and their "Tater-Tot Casserole".

:puke: