A new study from the University of California, Riverside, reveals that high-cholesterol diets in men can significantly elevate the risk of cardiovascular disease in their daughters. The research highlights how unhealthy paternal diets may alter sperm RNA, affecting offspring health.
Men who consume high-cholesterol diets may inadvertently increase their daughters’ risk of cardiovascular disease, according to a groundbreaking study led by the University of California, Riverside. Published in JCI Insight on September 10, this research is the first to demonstrate that unhealthy paternal diets can impact female offspring specifically, revealing a marked increase in atherosclerosis among daughters of men with poor dietary habits.
Cardiovascular disease (CVD), the leading global cause of death, encompasses various heart and blood vessel disorders, with hypertension being a significant risk factor. In the U.S., heart disease accounted for nearly 703,000 deaths in 2022, representing about one in five deaths.
Changcheng Zhou, professor of biomedical sciences and lead author of the study, notes that while sperm were previously thought to contribute only their genetic material during fertilization, recent research shows that environmental factors, including diet, can modify sperm RNA, thereby influencing intergenerational health.
RNA, akin to DNA but crucial for many biological functions, is present in all living cells. Zhou emphasizes that men planning to father children should consider adopting a healthy, low-cholesterol diet to mitigate potential risks to their offspring’s cardiovascular health.
The study specifically examined atherosclerosis, a leading cause of CVD characterized by plaque buildup in the arteries, which restricts blood flow and oxygen supply to vital organs. Researchers found that sperm RNA in mice fed a high-cholesterol diet underwent significant alterations, which in turn impacted early gene expression in embryonic stem cells.
Notably, the study reveals that only female offspring were affected by these paternal dietary factors. Male mice with hyperlipidemia, induced by a high-cholesterol diet, were mated with females on a regular diet, and their female offspring showed a two- to three-fold increase in atherosclerosis.
Zhou and his team, including Rebecca Hernandez, Xiuchun Li, Junchao Shi, and Tejasvi R. Dave from UCR, along with collaborators from the University of Nevada, Reno, and the University of Utah, aim to deepen understanding of how paternal health influences offspring diseases. The research underscores the need for further investigation into paternal dietary impacts on human cardiovascular health.
Reference: “Paternal hypercholesterolemia elicits sex-specific exacerbation of atherosclerosis in offspring,” JCI Insight, September 10, 2024. DOI: 10.1172/jci.insight.179291.
The study was supported by NIH grants, with additional funding for Hernandez from the American Heart Association and for Dave from a UCR mini-grant. The researchers employed the PANDORA-seq method developed at UCR to analyze sperm small RNA.