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Study links womb environment to childhood obesity

2012-03-15 11:37:59

By Neil Bowdler Health reporter, BBC News

New evidence has linked the environment in the womb with increased body weight

in later life.

Scientists found changes around the DNA at birth which may result from a

mother's diet or exposure to pollution or stress.

They then linked these changes to a higher Body Mass Index (BMI) in children

aged about nine years of age.

But the researchers say more work is needed to definitively prove the link

between these changes and obesity.

Details are published in the journal Plos One.

Childhood or adult obesity has many causes, not least childhood or adult diet,

but scientists have previously linked specific genes, such as the FTO gene,

with increased body weight.

Others have looked at not the genes, but associated molecular changes - what

are called epigenetics - which can play a role in how a gene functions in the

body, switching genes on and off.

These changes are thought to be caused in part by exposure to environmental

factors such as diet, stress, smoking or hormones, particularly in the womb and

during early childhood.

While epigenetic changes in the womb have already been associated with later

obesity, there is still little data to prove the link.

Dr Caroline Relton, of Newcastle University, and colleagues took blood samples

from 24 children aged 11 to 13 and looked for differences in the way genes are

"expressed" or encoded into the many proteins which we need to grow and

function.

Prof Tim Spector of King's College London, explains what epigenetics are

They identified epigenetic changes in 29 genes which could be associated with

higher body mass among the children.

They then looked at data from a larger study of 178 individuals, for whom there

were both cord blood samples from birth, and body composition data from aged

about nine.

Among these individuals, epigenetic changes to nine of the 29 genes previously

identified appeared to correspond to increased body weight, although only one

of these associated changes withstood rigorous further analysis, admit the

researchers.

"Other studies have just taken genes at birth and looked at differences

irrespective of whether they are differently expressed with different levels of

obesity," Dr Relton told the BBC.

"The difference between this study and others is that we had a reason to focus

on the genes we looked at because we knew they were differently expressed in

children with a higher BMI."

However, Dr Relton says more research is needed to prove the epigenetic

differences observed at birth and originating in the womb, are actually

contributing to obesity.

"While we have discovered an association between these genes and body size in

childhood we need to carry out further studies to establish whether influencing

the expression of these genes by altering epigenetic patterns is indeed a

trigger to obesity."

Early signals

Commenting on the paper, Prof Gudrun Moore of University College London told

BBC News: "The paper is an interesting study on epigentic variations and their

potential association with body size indices."

Prof Tim Spector of King's College London, said the paper represented "an

exciting piece of research exploring new ways of looking at the causes of

obesity".

"Although it is limited by the small size and the fact that they only looked at

29 genes, the researchers found that a third of the genes they looked at

contained epigenetic marks at birth that were related in some way to measures

of later obesity.

"This means that chemical signals that turn genes on or off at birth can

influence susceptibility to being fat at age 10.

"We know from differences in identical twins that genes and DNA are not the

whole answer. Understanding how we could manipulate these signals in early life

- via better understanding epigenetics - has great potential in battling the

obesity epidemic," he said.