Eat Wisely and Tell Mom Before You're Born

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Hate Your Hair? Blame

Your Mother's Diet

By Maggie Fox

Health and Science Correspondent

8-2-3

 

 

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - In a study that shows more than ever you are what

you eat, U.S. scientists said on Friday they had changed the coat colors

of baby mice simply by altering their mothers' diets.

 

The study shows that common nutrients can influence which genes turn on

and off in a developing fetus, and help explain some of the factors that

decide which genes " express " and which remain silent.

 

Writing in Friday's issue of the journal Molecular and Cellular Biology,

the scientists at Duke University Medical Center said they changed the

color of baby mouse fur by feeding pregnant mice four supplements --

vitamin B12, folic acid, choline and betaine.

 

Mice given the four supplements gave birth to babies predominantly with

brown coats. Pregnant mice not fed the supplements gave birth mostly to

babies with yellow coats.

 

Careful study showed the extra nutrients turned down expression of a gene

called Agouti, which affects fur color.

 

" We have long known that maternal nutrition profoundly impacts disease

susceptibility in their offspring, but we never understood the

cause-and-effect link, " said Randy Jirtle, a professor of radiation

oncology at Duke who directed the study.

 

" For the first time ever, we have shown precisely how nutritional

supplementation to the mother can permanently alter gene expression in her

offspring without altering the genes themselves, " he said in a statement.

 

The findings have not been shown in humans, but the researchers said there

is much support for the idea that nutrition can affect gene expression in

people.

 

Several studies have shown, for instance, that women who eat a poor diet

while pregnant have children who grow up with a tendency to diabetes and

heart disease.

 

OBESITY, DIABETES LINK

 

This study could help explain that. The Agouti gene not only affects coat

color, but also metabolic factors involved in diabetes and heart disease.

 

Mice with overactive Agouti genes tend to be obese and susceptible to

diabetes because the protein controlled by the gene affects one brain

signal involved in appetite.

 

" Diet, nutritional supplements and other seemingly innocuous compounds can

alter the development in utero to such an extent that it changes the

offspring's characteristics for life, and potentially that of future

generations, " said researcher Rob Waterland, who worked on the study.

 

Nutrition is likely to be one of the " environmental factors " that decides

which genes turn on and which stay silent.

 

Everyone inherits two copies of each gene -- one from each parent. For

most functions, only one gene expresses while the other is silent.

 

This idea, first explained by 19th century genetic pioneer Gregor Mendel

with his experiments on green and yellow peas, can explain why two

brown-eyed parents can have a blue-eyed child -- who may be expressing a

grandparents' gene that was silent in the parent.

 

" Our study demonstrates how early environmental factors can alter gene

expression without mutating the gene itself, " said Waterland said.

 

 

 

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