Father’s Preconception Diet Affects Children’s Health – Neuroscience News

Summary: The father’s diet before conception can affect the health of his children, especially the risk of developing metabolic diseases. The study, using data from the LIFE Child cohort and mice, revealed that the father’s diet influences sperm RNA, which affects genes in the offspring. This highlights the importance of the father’s health in preventive care.

Important information:

1. Paternal diet affects offspring weight and risk of metabolic syndrome by sperm RNA.
2. Paternal high-fat diets in mice led to offspring with increased susceptibility to metabolic syndrome.
3. Preventive health care for future fathers, focusing on nutrition, can reduce the risk of diseases in children.

Source: Helmholtz

Dr. Raffaele Teperino, head of the “Environmental Epigenetics” research group at Helmholtz Munich, together with his research team, analyzed the impact of the father’s diet on the children’s health – in particular, the influence of food before conception.

The researchers focused on specific RNA molecules in the sperm, known as mitochondrial tRNA fragments (mt-tsRNAs, see background). These RNAs play an important role in inheriting health traits by regulating genes.

For their study, the researchers used data from the LIFE Child cohort, which includes data from more than 3,000 families.

Studies have shown that the weight of the father influences the weight of the children and the possibility of having metabolic diseases.

This influence is independent of other factors such as maternal weight, parental genetics, or environmental factors.

Dad’s Food Influences Kids

To confirm the results of their analysis, the research team conducted experiments with mice. These mice were fed a high-fat diet, meaning a diet with more fat than a normal diet.

This had an effect on the reproductive organs of animals, including the epididymis. The epididymis is the area in the male reproductive system where the newly formed sperm grow.

Raffaele Teperino says: “Our study shows that sperm exposed to a high-fat diet in the mouse epididymis leads to children with an increased tendency to metabolic diseases.

To deepen the findings, the research team conducted additional studies in the laboratory. They created embryos through in-vitro fertilization (fertilization “in a test tube”).

When Teperino’s team used sperm from mice fed a high-fat diet, they found mt-tsRNAs from these early embryos, which have a significant impact of genes. This in turn affects the growth and health of children.

“Our hypothesis that acquired phenotypes during life, such as diabetes and obesity, are transmitted through epigenetic mechanisms across generations, is strengthened by this study. Here, epigenetics works as a molecular link” pull between the environment and the genome, even across generational boundaries.

“This happens not only in the family of pregnant women but, as the results of our research show, also in the family of the father,” explains Prof. Martin Hrabě de Angelis, co-author of this study and Director of Research at Helmholtz Munich.

Preventive Health Care for Men Aspiring to Fatherhood

The findings from Helmholtz researchers in Munich highlight the role of fathers’ health before conception – and provide new approaches to health care: “Our results suggest that health care good for men who wish to become fathers should be given more attention and that programs should be developed for this purpose, especially regarding food,” says Teperino.

“This can reduce the risk of diseases such as obesity and diabetes in children.”

Background: The Indirect Influence of Fathers

Mitochondria are often called the powerhouse of the cell. They have their own DNA, which is independent of the DNA in the nucleus of the cell. This mitochondrial DNA (mt-DNA) produces proteins in the mitochondria with mt-RNA in the middle and is usually inherited from mothers to children.

Before that, it was thought that fathers had no role in their children’s mitochondrial genes. However, recent studies such as this one now show that the sperm carries fragments of mt-RNA (“mt-tsRNA”) to the egg during fertilization.

mt-tsRNAs play a role in epigenetics, the regulation of genes in the early embryo: they can indirectly influence the development and health of children by changing the activity of certain genes in the mitochondria .

Therefore, fathers have an important, albeit indirect, influence on mitochondrial genes and thus on the energy metabolism of their children.

About this food and neurodevelopment research issues

Author: Verena Coscia
Source: Helmholtz
Contact: Verena Coscia – Helmholtz
Image: Image credited to Neuroscience News

Basic research: Open access.
“Epigenetic inheritance of mitochondrial RNAs induced by diet and sperm” by Raffaele Teperino et al. Nature

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Summary

Epigenetic inheritance of dietary and sperm-induced mitochondrial RNAs

Spermatozoa contain a complex and environmentally sensitive pool of small noncoding RNAs (sncRNAs), which influence offspring development and adult phenotypes. Whether spermatozoa in the epididymis can be directly attacked by environmental factors is not fully understood.

Here we used two different high-fat diet paradigms to dissect epididymal and testicular contributions to the sncRNA pool and offspring health.

We show that epididymal spermatozoa, but do not produce germ cells, are sensitive to the environment and identify mitochondrial tRNAs (mt-tRNAs) and their fragments (mt-tsRNAs) as cues bearing seed. In humans, mt-tsRNAs in spermatozoa correlate with body weight, and paternal overweight during pregnancy increases the risk of obesity in children and impairs metabolic health.

Sperm sncRNA sequencing of mice transgenic for genes involved in mitochondrial function, and metabolic phenotyping of their wild-type offspring, suggest that mt-tsRNAs are down-regulated. mitochondrial function.

Single-gene transcriptomics of two-cell embryos demonstrated sperm-to-oocyte transfer of mt-tRNA during conception and suggested its involvement in early transcriptional regulation embryo.

Our study supports the importance of the father’s health during conception for the offspring’s metabolism, showing that mt-tRNAs are influenced by diet and sperm and show, in the physical environment, transmission of father-to-offspring mitochondrial RNAs during conception.