You may acquire your grandfather’s poisons
Jun 21, 2005
Toxic chemicals that poisoned your grandparents, or even great-grandparents, may also affect your health, US researchers have discovered.
Toxic chemicals that poisoned your grandparents, or even great-grandparents, may also affect your health, US researchers have discovered.
A study in rats shows the effects of certain toxic chemicals were passed on for four generations of males. The finding, published in the journal Science, suggests that toxins may play a role in inherited diseases now blamed on genetic mutations.
“It’s a new way to think about disease,†said Michael Skinner, director of the Centre for Reproductive Biology at Washington State University in Pullman.
For their study, Skinner and colleagues injected pregnant rats with vinclozolin, a fungicide commonly used in vineyards, and methoxychlor, a pesticide that replaced DDT.
Scientists knew that treating pregnant rats with high doses of vinclozolin every day produces sterile male pups.
Skinner’s team injected vinclozolin into pregnant rats during a specific time during gestation when the developing embryos take on sexual characteristics. Male rat pups born to these mothers had a 20% lower than normal sperm count, their sperm could not swim as well, and they were less fertile. There were similar results with methoxychlor.
When these male offspring were mated with females that had not been exposed to the toxins, 90% of the new male offspring had similar problems. The effect held for a fourth generation.
Up to now, only radiation and cancer chemotherapy were known to affect fertility of the children of people affected.
Reuters
A study in rats shows the effects of certain toxic chemicals were passed on for four generations of males. The finding, published in the journal Science, suggests that toxins may play a role in inherited diseases now blamed on genetic mutations.
“It’s a new way to think about disease,†said Michael Skinner, director of the Centre for Reproductive Biology at Washington State University in Pullman.
For their study, Skinner and colleagues injected pregnant rats with vinclozolin, a fungicide commonly used in vineyards, and methoxychlor, a pesticide that replaced DDT.
Scientists knew that treating pregnant rats with high doses of vinclozolin every day produces sterile male pups.
Skinner’s team injected vinclozolin into pregnant rats during a specific time during gestation when the developing embryos take on sexual characteristics. Male rat pups born to these mothers had a 20% lower than normal sperm count, their sperm could not swim as well, and they were less fertile. There were similar results with methoxychlor.
When these male offspring were mated with females that had not been exposed to the toxins, 90% of the new male offspring had similar problems. The effect held for a fourth generation.
Up to now, only radiation and cancer chemotherapy were known to affect fertility of the children of people affected.
Reuters