Research project Early life poverty and food shortage - transgenerational consequences
Do early-life poverty and food shortage trigger biological and cognitive responses in four subsequent generations? - A test of the Pembrey-Bygren transgenerational response hypothesis.
Our aim was to test the hypothesis that a person's experience in utero or early life, such as food shortage or poverty, can trigger a trans-generational response, seen in later generations as specific biological or cognitive traits.
We replicated, on a much larger scale, the studies by Pembrey and Bygren, which have reported that a person´s nutritional experience in utero or during the so called slow growth period caused changed risk for obesity, diabetes or cardiovascular mortality in their grandchildren, in a sex-specific manner.
Project description
Do early-life poverty and food shortage trigger biological and cognitive responses in four subsequent generations? - A test of the Pembrey-Bygren transgenerational response hypothesis.
We will extend this test beyond the work of Pembrey and Bygren to include growth, obesity and cognitive traits in great grandchildren and fetal growth in great great grandchildren. Thus our study will span five generations. Epigenetics has produced a theoretical rationale for such trans-generational response in plants and mammals, but it is not clear if this is at all applicable to humans. In the absence of data on methylation, chromatin acetylation or miRNAs we make no claim to try to reveal the specific biological response mechanisms, if any.
We limit ourselves to test 1) whether a trans-generational response in successive generations can be demonstrated for specific outcomes, 2) whether the in utero and slow growth periods constitute sensitive periods to exposure and 3) whether any trans-generational response is sex-specific or not.
We discuss the implications of our findings in the context of nature/nurture and public health.
Project members
Project managers
Denny Vågerö
Emeritus
Members
Gerard van den Berg
Professor
Bitte Modin
Professor
Pia Pinger
Professor