Epigenetic modification in Obesity

Last year, Dubai's government held launch the initiative that residents were paid in gold for losing those extra pounds as part of a government campaign to fight growing obesity in the Gulf Arab emirate. More than 10,000 people registered in the challenge and lost a total of 13,275 kilograms. This year, Dubai's government announces it will re-launch the initiative this Ramadan, and this time the focus is on child obesity.

In US, more than 37 million men and almost 41 million women aged 20 and over are obese, and 16.9 % of US children and adolescents are obese. These increases in obesity in recent decades have occurred too rapidly to be explained completely by genomic DNA mutation or selection. Epigenetic modifications are known to be transmitted immediately to a large number of offspring in the next generation, and thus contribute to intergenerational transmission of obesity risk between parents and children. According to previous studies in twins, genetic inheritance contributes to 40–75 % of obesity cases by monogenic, multigenic, and epigenetic contributions.

The retained histone methylation patterns in sperm are transmitted to offspring, which causes an effect of paternal trans-generational transmission of histone-encoded epigenetic information on phenotypic variation in offspring.

In mouse experiments, diet-induced obesity is found to be associated with increased reactive oxygen species and DNA damage in sperm. In humans, increased BMI in males is associated with

decreased blastocyst development and live birth rates after in vitro fertilization (Ivf) by affecting epigenetic marks in sperm. Both are clear evidences for the epigenetic effects of paternal diet on offspring.

Moreover, epidemiological and clinical studies also indicates the paternal multigenerational and trans-generational epigenetic effects. For example, the paternal grandfather’s food supply is only linked to the mortality risk ratios of grandsons, while paternal grandmother’s food supply was only associated with the granddaughters’ mortality risk ratio. And the sex- specific association is not affected by the grandchild’s own childhood circumstances. These are probably caused by epigenetic modification.

Dubai is known for its larger-than-life offers. It has a history of giving away luxury cars and yachts in lucky draws and is home to one the largest gold markets in the region. Although we can't expect the government to give us the same treatment, but maintaining a healthy weight is also very necessary to us, since paternal and maternal BMI may affects BMI of offspring.