New research, published in Nature communicationfinds that macronutrient balance in the diet of male mice influences the level of anxiety-like behavior in sons and the metabolic health of daughters.
The research offers a step toward understanding how the effect of nutrition can be passed from one generation to the next through a father's sperm. It could ultimately provide nutritional guidelines for expectant fathers, with the aim of lowering the risk of metabolic diseases and mood disorders in the next generation.
Parents like to believe that they can control their children's interests and behavior, with varying degrees of success. But a new study from an international team of researchers confirms that this is the case for mice, with fathers shaping the health of their offspring through their own diet.
Scientists have already discovered that a mouse father's diet can affect not only his own reproductive health, but that of his offspring as well. Male mice that eat too much or too little can affect the metabolism and behavior of their offspring, as well as their risk of cancer. What is less clear is whether there are different types of health effects on offspring health depending on the type and composition of male mice's diet before conception.
This was the starting point for the research of scientists in the international GECKO consortium, with principal investigators in Copenhagen, Sydney and Chicago.
At the Charles Perkins Center at the University of Sydney in Australia, researchers fed male mice one of ten diets that differed in the proportions of protein, fat and carbohydrates, and then allowed them to mate with females raised on a standard diet. The behavior and physiology of the resulting pups were then studied.
Nutritional composition is just as important as the number of calories
The scientists found that male mice fed a low-protein, high-carbohydrate diet were more likely to produce male offspring with higher levels of anxiety, as measured by the time they spent in the safety zones of their maze. They also found that male mice fed a high-fat diet were more likely to have daughters with higher body fat content and markers of metabolic disease.
“Our research shows that the type of diet eaten before conception can program specific characteristics of the next generation,” says co-senior author and leader of the GECKO consortium, Professor Romain Barrès, from the University of Copenhagen and Université Cote d'Azur, Nice. .
“It is extraordinary that, by titrating mixtures of proteins, fats and carbohydrates in the father's diet, we can influence specific characteristics of the health and behavior of his sons and daughters. Important biology plays a role here,” says Professor Stephen Simpson, co-senior author and academic director of the Charles Perkins Center at the University of Sydney.
The team also noted that men on a low-protein diet also ate more food overall. However, the study's design allowed them to determine that both the amount of calories and macronutrient composition in the men's diets influenced the health of their offspring.
“Our research shows that not only eating too much or too little, but also the composition of the diet can have an impact on future children,” says Professor Romain Barrès.
The work was carried out in mice and has opened the way for the team to study the molecular mechanisms involved. The mouse work is part of a broader series of studies within the GECKO consortium, involving humans and other mammals at partner institutions.
“We believe that our study is a step towards establishing dietary guidelines for expectant fathers, with the ultimate goal of reducing the risk of metabolic diseases and mood disorders in the next generation,” says Professor Romain Barrès.
