Could a young boy’s weight during adolescence — particularly around puberty — cause his children to have asthma? The new study, “Father’s Adolescent Body Silhouette Is Associated With Offspring Asthma, Lung Function and BMI Through DNA Methylation,” suggests it can play a role as well as significantly influence the overall health of future children. The findings were recently published in Communications Biology.
According to the Australian study, this association occurs through changes in DNA methylation, a key epigenetic mechanism. The study was conducted by scientists from the RHINESSA cohort, an international research project that studies asthma, allergies and lung health across generations and throughout a person’s lifespan. The study analyzed data from 339 father-offspring pairs across Europe and Australia. It found that boys who were overweight during puberty were more likely to have children with asthma, reduced lung function and a higher body mass index (BMI). Researchers noted different methylation patterns in sons and daughters.
Key findings from the study revealed that more than 2,000 DNA methylation sites in offspring were linked to their father’s body silhouette during childhood, puberty and early adulthood. Further, the pubertal period — marked by voice break — was the most critical window, with the strongest associations found between paternal overweight at this stage and epigenetic changes in children.
These changes were linked to genes involved in obesity, insulin regulation, lipid metabolism, asthma and lung development. The study also identified sex-specific effects, with different DNA methylation patterns observed in sons and daughters.
Researchers said they believe their findings add to growing evidence that a father’s health before conception, especially during puberty, can have lasting biological effects on his children. Unlike previous studies that focused on maternal health, this study emphasizes the paternal contribution to intergenerational health risks.
Additionally, lead researchers said they believed the pubertal period may be a “vulnerability window” during which lifestyle factors like diet and weight can imprint on sperm DNA, potentially affecting offspring health decades later. Imprinted genes such as VTRNA2-1, BLCAP and NAP1L5 were among those affected, suggesting a heritable epigenetic mechanism.
The study has implications for public health, potentially reshaping strategies for early intervention in boys’ health and that of their offspring. The study opens the door to the use of DNA methylation markers as predictive tools for identifying children at risk of metabolic and respiratory diseases and may lead to new avenues for epigenetic screening and targeted therapies.
Researchers called for further studies to validate these findings in larger and more diverse populations. They also advocated for integrating paternal health into reproductive and preventive health care planning.
