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New research suggests that smoking in fathers can lead to changes in their sperm that lead to cognitive deficits in their children – and even their grandchildren.
The study, which focused on male mice fed nicotine in their drinking water, was published Tuesday in the journal PLOS Biology by Pradeep Bhide of the Florida State University of Tallahassee and his colleagues.
"Nicotine can have direct harmful effects on the male who uses it and, as our study suggests, it also has detrimental effects on the cognitive function of its offspring," Bhide said in an e-mail.
The researchers said that when male mice were raised with female mice that had never been exposed to nicotine, their production was hyperactivity, attention deficit, and cognitive rigidity.
The effect is even extended to a second generation: when female children (but not male children) were raised with males who had not been exposed to nicotine, their offspring still had significant deficits in terms of cognitive flexibility, the researchers explained.
Studies have already shown that mothers should not smoke, exposing themselves to nicotine and other components of the smoke, as this is an important risk factor for behavioral disorders, including Attention deficit hyperactivity in several generations, researchers said.
"Until now, the effects of maternal exposure to nicotine on their children had caught the eye. Little was known about the effects of paternal smoking on their children and grandchildren. Our study shows that paternal exposure to nicotine can be detrimental to offspring of several generations, "he said.
The researchers suggested that this effect could be due to epigenetic changes in key genes in the father's sperm. They said they discovered that multiple genes in the sperm of men exposed to nicotine had been modified epigenetically, including a gene essential for brain development.
Bhide pointed out that the length of time during which the effect of nicotine would persist in a man's sperm would not be clear.
"It is possible that some of the epigenetic changes caused by nicotine in sperm DNA are temporary and disappear over time, which means that children conceived after a certain period of nicotine abstinence might not not be affected, "said Bhide in an email.
"Other epigenetic changes may be permanent and may have adverse effects on offspring. More studies are needed "to know the answer, he said.
Bhide said the study raised questions not only about what current smokers are doing to future generations, but also about what previous generations of smokers have inflicted on people alive today.
"Smoking was more common and more easily accepted by the population in the 1940s, 50s and 60s compared to today. Could this exposure prove to be a marked increase in the number of neurodevelopmental disorder diagnoses such as ADHD and Autism? ", Did he declare.
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