New study shows how parental lifestyle affects future children’s health

Lifestyle and environmental factors among future parents can have an impact on their children's health, a new study has demonstrated.

The University of Copenhagen research compared sperm cells from 13 lean men and ten obese men, finding that the cells possessed different epigenetic marks with the potential to alter the next generation's appetite.

Researchers went on to follow six men undergoing gastric bypass surgery, observing an average of 4,000 structural changes to sperm cell DNA from the time before the surgery to one year later.

Acute nutritional stresses in one generation, such as famine, were shown to increase the risk of developing diabetes in the following generations, suggesting parents can affect their children's health long before conception.

It also provides evidence that the genetic information carried by gametes is much more malleable and modifiable than had been previously assumed.

Study leader Professor Romain Barres said: "Discovering that lifestyle and environmental factors, such as a person's nutritional state, can shape the information in our gametes and thereby modify the eating behaviour of the next generation is, to my mind, an important find."