Parents May Pass Down More Than Just Genes...
An obese man before undergoing bariatric surgery donated
sperm to a Danish scientist. A week after the procedure he donated again and
then a year later his third sample. Scientist began to study that perhaps the
man’s experiences can alter his sperm; in turn altering changes in his children.
They conducted an experiment at the University of Copenhagen with rats to test
their hypothesis. They fed male rats a high-fat diet and mated them with
females. Their offspring tended to gain more weight and developed more fat,
having trouble with insulin levels. Rats also exposed to stressors such as the
odor of a fox affected the offspring genes. The male rats gave offspring to pups with dampened responses to stress. After much testing with rat the scientists then decided to recruited six obese
men getting bariatric surgery. Their aim was to see if their genes change with losing weight.
A year later more than 3,900 genes were identified to be different. Thus proving that our genes change with different variables.
Its great to know and understand these studies. It teaches us that perhaps its not totally someone’s fault for being obese. I learned that regardless of the situations we choose, we have to take into consideration that our genes are being passed to future generations.
Its great to know and understand these studies. It teaches us that perhaps its not totally someone’s fault for being obese. I learned that regardless of the situations we choose, we have to take into consideration that our genes are being passed to future generations.
Ive never thought that a change of variables, such as the bariatric surgery, will change the genetics of their offspring. Very interesting to think about.
ReplyDeleteIts incredible that scientists are able to determine that there are multiple variables that have such a significant impact on our genes. I found an article on research done looking at the relationship between genes and our environment. This article came up with similar conclusions.
ReplyDelete"The environment can affect our development and the traits we inherit from our parents, according to new research, and using a new, powerful single-cell technique, scientists are just beginning to understand life's impact on our DNA."
http://www.natureworldnews.com/articles/8165/20140721/how-the-environment-affects-our-dna.htm
This study touches home a lot. I was obese in my high school days and so was my brother and my dad but my mom is stick skinny. this study would make sense of why we both were bigger like my dad.
ReplyDeleteIt does make sense now seeing some children nowadays who are obese and then looking at their parents and they are also obese. This study should make people who are thinking of having children look at themselves first in order to predict a little on how healthy their children will be, especially the men like in this study.
ReplyDeleteThis is very incredible considering we have always been taught the difference of acquired and inherited traits. This is, in turn, saying that acquired traits can therefore be inherited, which is very interesting.
ReplyDelete