Can a person pass on a trait like obesity to their kids, even if they
did not used to be fat? A German study believes it may be
closer to finding the answer.
Researchers took mice that had become obese and developed type-2
diabetes and monitored their offspring, which were created through
IVF and implanted into healthy surrogates. Their results showed
that the obese mice’s offspring would too develop obesity despite
the parent mice not being ‘genetically’ obese.
The researchers believe this means that the mice oocytes and sperm passed on
these traits epigenetically; that is, something caused by external or
environmental factors rather than genetics.
This research could have implications for how we think about and treat
acquired physical disorders, as well as treatments. Researchers believe it
may possibly explain the rapid spread of diabetes in recent decades.
The study has been published in the journal Nature Genetics
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