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Abstract

Social circumstances often impinge on later generations in a socio-economic manner, giving children an uneven start in life. Overfeeding and overeating might not be an exception. The pathways might be complex but one direct mechanism could be genomic imprinting and loss of imprinting. An intergenerational "feedforward" control loop has been proposed, that links grandparental nutrition with the grandchild's growth. The mechanism has been speculated to be a specific response, e.g. to their nutritional state, directly modifying the setting of the gametic imprint on one or more genes. This study raises the question: Can overnutrition during a child's slow growth period trigger such direct mechanisms and partly determine mortality? Data were collected by following-up a cohort born in 1905 in Overkalix parish, northernmost Sweden. The probands were characterised by their parents' or grandparents' access to food during their own slow growth period. Availability of food in the area was defined by referring to historical data on harvests and food prices, records of local community meetings and general historical facts. If there was a surfeit of food in the environment when the paternal grandfather was a 9-12 year old boy a shortening of the proband survival could be demonstrated. The influence of parents', maternal grandparents' and paternal grandmothers' access to food during their slow growth period was discounted in a multivariable analysis. The results are indicative of very early programming mechanisms in human adaptation to the social environment.

Paternal environmental enrichment transgenerationally alters affective behavioral and neuroendocrine phenotypes

“…These results are in line with previous transgenerational studies displaying variability in the directionality of the sex-specific effects in both humans (Bygren et al, 2001) and rodents (Dietz et al, 2011;Franklin et al, 2010;Short et al, 2016).…”

“…We previously showed that paternal exposure to CORT had an effect on F2 depression-like behavior but not in F1, an effect that was transmitted through the male lineage (Short et al, 2016). Other studies have also indicated that phenotypes in the F2 or F3 generations differ from those seen in the F1 animals (Bygren et al, 2001;Franklin et al, 2010), although these phenotypes could be affected by the changes in the F1 generation. It is possible that paternal environmental enrichment could specifically affect the behaviors of the F2 generation or, alternatively, that the observed changes in the behaviors are due to the increased male F1 body weight which in turn is caused by an EE paradigm; thus, causing an indirect effect.…”

The Impact of Traditional Food and Lifestyle Behavior on Epigenetic Burden of Chronic Disease

“…[142] The children and grandchildren of those to starvation at the time have been shown to have an increased risk of mortality from CVD and type 2 diabetes. [74,76,143] In addition, sudden changes from nutritional overindulgence to starvation or from starvation to overindulgence can also be responsible for some of the epigenetically determined increases in the risks of offsprings' adult NCCDs. [74,75] Additionally, studies have shown that epigenetic insults that can influence the risk of offsprings' health do not necessarily have to be experienced around the time of gestation but can set in long before conception.…”

“…[74,75] Additionally, studies have shown that epigenetic insults that can influence the risk of offsprings' health do not necessarily have to be experienced around the time of gestation but can set in long before conception. [76,144,145] More recently, evidence from the Chinese famine of 1959-1961, Biafran famine of 1967-1970, and Ukrainian famine of 1932-1933 have shown increased risks of type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular disease, mental health issues, and other chronic diseases (Table 2). [66][67][68]72,73,84,85] The Irish, Bangladeshi, Finnish, Soviet Union, and the Gambian famine have also been reported.…”

“…Human/ cohort study Risk of insulin resistance and CVD in Indian children with history of low birth weight and obesity at 8 years [78] Maternal undernutrition resulted in low birth weight, which was associated with increased adiposity at 8 years [74,76,82] Decreased cardiovascular mortality with decreasing availability of food for fathers and paternal grandmothers during slow growth period (9-12 years)…”