Inherited Obesity is Amplified Across Generations
by Joyce Gramza |
October 21st, 2008 |
Published in
All, Health
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[If you cannot see the flash video below, you can click here for a high quality mp4 video.]
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Interviewee: Rob Waterland, Baylor College of Medicine |
Obesity in the Womb
By Heather Mayer
With the obesity epidemic in full force, researchers have been puzzled and concerned at the sheer pace of its spread. "This is puzzling because a lot of people have focused on genetics for so many years," says Rob Waterland, assistant professor of pediatrics at the USDA Children’s Nutrition Research Center at Baylor College of Medicine. "But obviously, the genetic background hasn’t changed dramatically enough in such a short period of time to explain this increase in the prevalence of obesity."
So Waterland and others have looked for another explanation of how obesity is inherited. They’ve suggested that obesity isn’t merely genetic — it is somehow triggered in the womb during development. Now Waterland and his team’s latest study in mice shows that mom’s obesity not only generates obesity in her offspring but also magnifies it.
Also on ScienCentral |
“They were actually fatter than their mothers, so we saw a population shift in the distribution of body weight,” Waterland explains. “We saw a shift in this distribution toward heavier and heavier body weight with each generation.”
The researchers were able to show that these inherited changes are not due to genetic changes. Instead, they attributed to them to epigenetic changes, which control the way genes are expressed during development. If human obesity through the generations is triggered by epigenetics, it’s possible that a mother’s obesity before and during her pregnancy can permanently affect the development of her baby’s weight regulatory mechanisms.
“So-called epigenetic mechanisms could be playing an important role in determining your body weight regulation throughout your life," Waterland says.
Fat Mice Produce Fatter Mice
The question the researchers set out to answer had to do with a fetus’s environment and how that might affect its weight.
“People have postulated that if an obese woman becomes pregnant, there may be something unique about the intrauterine environment that her fetus is exposed to that may actually change the development of her fetus, and actually alter the development of body weight regulation mechanisms that will then cause her child to be more prone to obesity,” explains Waterland.
Waterland and his team followed three generations of genetically identical mice that had a tendency to overeat and become obese. Because all of the mice were genetically identical , getting fat couldn’t be due to changes in their DNA.
“This was a non-genetic transmission of obesity across generations,” Waterland says.
Obesity Reversal Supplement
Not only did the researchers study the offspring of obese mothers, but they also looked at the effects of feeding the obese pregnant mothers a diet supplemented with substances that are known to donate chemical tags called methyl groups to areas of the DNA that regulate genes.. This supplement was able to reverse the effect of mom’s obesity on her pups.
“It was able to completely eliminate the obesogenic effect, or the obesity-promoting effect, of maternal obesity on the offspring,” Waterland says.
Waterland says it’s possible that DNA methylation plays a significant role in the development of the hypothalamus, which is the part of the brain that regulates appetite. And because the mice studied had genetic tendencies to overeat, it’s possible that the methyl supplements also played a role in the appetite part of the brain, causing a reversal in the obese offspring effect.
“Where my research is going now is to try to understand what are the mechanisms that regulate the hypothalamus, specifically expression of these very important genes, when are they established during development and how are they influenced by environment such as nutrition or maternal obesity,” explains Waterland.
Findings Support Maintaining Healthy Weights
One of the substances in the supplement fed to the mouse moms was folic acid, which women area already advised to take during pregnancy. But Waterland stresses that their findings can’t yet be extended to people. "The supplement we gave included other ingredients in addition to folic acid, so we don’t know whether it might be these other ingredients that are playing the key role. And also, we fundamentally don’t know whether these findings in a mouse model can be directly translated to humans," he says.
But he calls the possibility that supplements could eventually be designed to do the same in people, "tantalizing."
“If we can understand exactly how this supplement works and what it is doing, and if it indeed has the same types of properties in humans, it may someday be possible that an obese woman who is planning on becoming pregnant would be prescribed a type of special dietary supplement that would help to minimize the risk of her child becoming obese,” Waterland says.
For now, Waterland says his studies support recommendations that woman should aim for a healthy weight before becoming pregnant.
“Obese women who are planning on becoming pregnant should try to attain a healthy body weight before pregnancy in order to minimize the risk of pregnancy complications and also maximize the health of their baby,” Waterland says.
Elsewhere on the Web:
Weight Guidelines for Pregnancy from the March of Dimes
"Obesity Before Pregnancy Linked to Childhood Weight Problems"—NIH news release
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October 21st, 2008 at 4:43 pm (#)
Wow, very interesting!
October 22nd, 2008 at 6:13 am (#)
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October 22nd, 2008 at 7:53 am (#)
nicely written and informative article.
October 22nd, 2008 at 8:08 am (#)
My mom was fat. She had 5 kids. All fat. Both sisters had by-pass. One sister had it twice, being the first was a mesh bag, encapsulating the stomach. Then had the REY-do.
Both regained the weight, in the second year, post op.
I had it 1.5 year ago. So far so good.
Yes, genetics. And poor eating habits as we grew up. That and being poor, we ate what we could. Carbohydrates, spaghetti, potatoes, ET…
Poor people cannot afford to eat healthy.
Unfortunately.
October 22nd, 2008 at 8:37 am (#)
I've always thought there was a correlation. Really good research. I'd like to learn more about the effect folic acid has as a weight loss supplement.
October 23rd, 2008 at 11:59 am (#)
Wonder if energy levels get passed from generation to generation. ANd if fat dads have fatter offspring.
October 23rd, 2008 at 5:38 pm (#)
I dont see how babies could get that from their mommies…
November 16th, 2008 at 1:01 pm (#)
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March 2nd, 2009 at 4:05 pm (#)
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August 3rd, 2009 at 8:23 pm (#)
lots of americans and europeans are getting obese these days because of over-eating. people should be controlling what they eat or they should workout their body to burn fat.
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September 13th, 2009 at 1:30 am (#)
the best solution for obesity is none other than Exercise and Proper diet. i would try to avoid slimming pills or fat burning food supplements
December 26th, 2009 at 9:12 am (#)
The only way you can manage obesity is throught Proper Diet and lots of exercise. The human body is designed for work so we should always get some form of physical exercise to stay fit.
.
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February 21st, 2010 at 11:07 pm (#)
Obesity is a growing health problem these days because people are too lazy to do some extra exercise and they eat too much. i always exercise and do cardio regularly to maintain a healthy weight.
March 1st, 2010 at 5:22 am (#)
Obesity is really an epidemic these days. People have become very lazy and does not want to exercise anymore. I do a lot of jogging and brisk walking everyday just to be fit and healthy.
April 7th, 2010 at 2:22 am (#)
Obesity and diabetes are becoming more and more of a problem these days. Actually it is easy to avoid being overweight by just having the proper diet and exercise.
April 28th, 2010 at 4:37 am (#)
more people are becoming obese these days because of too much junk food and too much sugar in snacks and fast foods. :
May 13th, 2010 at 9:59 am (#)
thats a lie. im fat and like it
May 13th, 2010 at 10:00 am (#)
thats wat i thought retards
May 13th, 2010 at 10:06 am (#)
well wesley i totally agree im 250 pounds and i am in 6th grade and it its awesome. i get to eat whatever and whenever i want. being fat its AWWESOME!!!!!!
June 17th, 2010 at 1:50 am (#)
Healthy weight is easy to maintain, just watch your diet and always exercise.`~*
August 16th, 2010 at 8:16 pm (#)
you can always blame junkfood, burgers and all those sweet stuffs for causing obesity”.*
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actually, it is easy to get a healthy weight if people are just careful on what they are eating*”-
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maintaining a healthy weight can be tricky because it revolves around genetics and some other factors :::
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They’ve suggested that obesity isn’t merely genetic — it is somehow triggered in the womb during development. Now Waterland and his team’s latest study in mice shows that mom’s obesity not only generates obesity in her offspring but also magnifies it.
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