Early teenage male smokers risk passing on harmful epigenetic traits to future children

A new study suggests boys who smoke in their early teens risk damaging the genes of their future children, increasing their chances of developing asthma, obesity, and low lung function. Researchers from the University of Southampton and the University of Bergen in Norway investigated the epigenetic profiles of 875 people, aged 7 to 50, and the smoking behaviours of their fathers.

They found epigenetic changes at 19 sites mapped to 14 genes in the children of fathers who smoked before the age of 15. These changes in the way DNA is packaged in cells (methylation) regulate gene expression (switching them on and off) and are associated with asthma, obesity, and wheezing.

Professor Cecilie Svanes from the University of Bergen and Research Director of the RHINESSA study said, “Our studies in the large international RHINESSA, RHINE, and ECRHS studies have shown that the health of future generations depends on the actions and decisions made by young people today – long before they are parents – in particular for boys in early puberty and mothers/grandmothers both pre-pregnancy and during pregnancy,”

Co-lead author of the paper Dr Negusse Kitaba said, “Changes in epigenetic markers were much more pronounced in children whose fathers started smoking during puberty than those whose fathers had started smoking at any time before conception.”

Reference: Fathers’ preconception smoking and offspring DNA methylation., Clinical Epigenetics, DOI 10.1186/s13148-023-01540-7