An obese father increases the risk of his children and grandchildren becoming obese, even if they follow a healthy diet. That’s the implication of a series of mouse studies conducted at the University of Adelaide.
Photo: A mouse with diet induced obesity and its control counterpart. Credit: Robinson Research Institute
The researchers found that a father’s high-fat diet could change the molecular make-up of his sperm, leading to obesity and diabetes-like symptoms in two generations of offspring.
“With obese fathers, changes in the sperm’s microRNA molecules are linked with programming the embryo for obesity or metabolic disease later in life,” says Tod Fullston, the study’s lead author and an NHMRC Peter Doherty Fellow with the University of Adelaide’s Robinson Research Institute.
Large numbers of premature-born children may be slipping under the radar, say researchers who have found brain development problems in teenagers deemed clinically normal after a late preterm birth.
Children born even one to five weeks premature can show reduced skills later in life.
Julia Pitcher and Michael Ridding, of the Robinson Research Institute, University of Adelaide, found that children born even one to five weeks premature showed reduced ‘neuroplasticity’ as teenagers. Their study provides the first physiological evidence of the link between late preterm birth and reduced motor, learning and social skills in later life.
Children with a deadly muscle-wasting disease are regaining the ability to walk and potentially avoiding life-threatening complications, thanks to a new treatment developed by researchers at Perth’s Murdoch University.
Photo: Steve Wilton and Sue Fletcher’s drug therapy is helping children who suffer from Duchenne muscular dystrophy stay active. Credit: Murdoch University
A fibre may help save millions of children in developing countries who die or who are left malnourished from diarrhoea each year.
Resistant starch in the diet may protect millions of children in developing countries from diarrhoea.
Graeme Young, AM, of Flinders University, is leading a global project that will test his theory that resistant starch increases zinc absorption in the body.
