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TEHRAN, Jun 1-When an unborn child is exposed to paternal tobacco smoke, their risk of developing asthma increases greatly compared to those who aren't.
TEHRAN, Young Journalists Club (YJC) -Mothers who smoke tobacco while pregnant can endanger the health of an unborn child, but, researchers say, so can soon-to-be fathers.
When an unborn child is exposed to paternal tobacco smoke, their risk of developing asthma increases greatly compared to those who aren't, according to research published Friday in Frontiers in Genetics.
"We found that prenatal exposure to paternal tobacco smoking is associated with increased methylation of certain immune genes, which alters how the genetic code is read," Chih Chiang Wu of Po-Zen Hospital in Taiwan and study lead author, said in a news release. "This smoking-associated DNA methylation is significantly retained from birth to 6 years of age, and correlates with development of childhood asthma."
For the study, the researchers tracked more than 1,600 Taiwanese children who all had prenatal paternal tobacco smoking exposure. They performed medical assessments and analyzed DNA of the children at birth, 18-months-old and 6-years-old.
"Twenty-three percent of the fathers [367 in a cohort of 1629 couples with newborns] were smokers, compared to just 3 of the mothers [0.2%]. This unique disparity provided the perfect opportunity to study the effects of paternal tobacco smoking exposure," said co-author Ho Chang Kuo, a researcher at Kaohsiung Chang Gung Memorial Hospital and study co-author.
The researchers found the higher the paternal tobacco smoking exposure, the more methylation of LMO2, IL10 and GSTM1 in the child's DNA. These genes support important immune function which may raise asthma risk.Although the researchers say the link is significant, they stress that the finding only shows an association between paternal tobacco smoking and asthma, not a cause.
"While prenatal paternal tobacco smoking exposure was associated with childhood asthma development at 6 years of age, it did not correlate with allergen sensitization or total levels of IgE -- an allergy-associated antibody implicated in asthma. Against expectations, this implies that prenatal PTS-associated asthma is mediated by an IgE-independent mechanism," Yang said.
Source: upi
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