Drinking While Pregnant Can Affect Future Generations
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Moms-to-be have heard the warnings not to drink while pregnant because it can lead to Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorders (FASD) in newborns. Regardless, many women still drink believing that a glass of wine can’t hurt their unborn child.
Today, though, there’s a new reason an expectant mom should put down her glass of wine — drinking wine will not only affect her unborn child but could affect brain development for future generations.
“Traditionally, prenatal ethanol exposure (PrEE) from maternal consumption of alcohol, was thought to solely impact directly exposed offspring, the embryo or fetus in the womb,” said Kelly Huffman, psychology professor at the University of California, Riverside.
“However, we now have evidence that the effects of prenatal alcohol exposure could persist transgenerationally and negatively impact the next-generations of offspring who were never exposed to alcohol,” Huffman said.
Previous studies found that prenatal exposure to alcohol impacted the neocortex, the part of the brain responsible for complex behavior and cognition in humans, and that it can lead to abnormal motor behavior and increased anxiety in the exposed offspring.
To determine whether the abnormalities in brain and behavior from prenatal ethanol exposure would pass to future generations, Huffman generated a mouse model of FASD and tested many aspects of brain and behavioral development across three generations.
As expected, the first generation, the directly exposed offspring, showed atypical gene expression, abnormal development of the neural network within the neocortex and behavioral deficits. However, subsequent generations of non-exposed mice had neurodevelopmental and behavioral problems similar to the those of the first, directly exposed generation.
“By demonstrating the strong transgenerational effects of prenatal ethanol exposure in a mouse model of FASD, we suggest that FASD may be a heritable condition in humans,” Huffman said.
The study was published in the journal Cerebral Cortex.
Another recent study also found that a pregnant mom’s habits can affect future generations. Scientists at Georgetown Lombardi Comprehensive Cancer Center found that eating a high-fat diet during pregnancy could increase the risk of breast cancer in females for generations.
Earlier studies found that mice that eat a high-fat diet when pregnant have female offspring that are at increased risk of breast cancer. The new study, however, found that if pregnant mice were switched to a high-fat diet during their second trimester — the period of time in the fetus when the mechanism forms that transmits genetic information from one generation to another — breast cancer risk is also raised in “great granddaughers.”