Like father like daughter

Like father like daughter

The detrimental effects of maternal obesity on offspring has been the clear focal point for many recent investigations, however it seems Dad’s the word according to a new study.

A recent PhD study, supervised by Professor Margaret Morris of the School of Medical Sciences at the University of New South Wales, revealed that female offspring of obese male rats developed the same glucose intolerance as their fathers.

‘In the mothers there are clear mechanisms where that might happen through the uterus. What happens while a foetus is developing can have an impact’ Morris said, ‘but the father has really been a bit of an untapped question.’

In the study, male rats were fed on a diet known to cause obesity and diabetes, ten weeks before they were allowed to mate. ‘When they were mated, they were obese, they had increased insulin and they were glucose intolerant: diabetic if you will’ said Morris.

The females developed glucose intolerance at six weeks which got worse at twelve, demonstrating abnormalities in the genes of pancreatic cells which produce insulin. The most intriguing finding of this investigation, however, was that although the females became glucose intolerant at a young age, they were not obese.

‘One question that remains of course, is whether that [obesity] may develop as they age. That's the subject of ongoing work’ concluded Morris.

Source: Nature

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