Paternal grandfather’s access to food predicts all-cause and cancer mortality in grandsons

Denny Vågerö; Pia R. Pinger; Vanda Aronsson; Gerard J. van den Berg

doi:10.1038/s41467-018-07617-9

Paternal grandfather’s access to food predicts all-cause and cancer mortality in grandsons

Denny Vågerö^*, Pia R. Pinger, Vanda Aronsson, Gerard J. van den Berg

^*Corresponding author for this work

Economics

Research output: Contribution to Journal › Article › Academic › peer-review

Abstract

Studies of animals and plants suggest that nutritional conditions in one generation may affect phenotypic characteristics in subsequent generations. A small number of human studies claim to show that pre-pubertal nutritional experience trigger a sex-specific transgenerational response along the male line. A single historical dataset, the Överkalix cohorts in northern Sweden, is often quoted as evidence. To test this hypothesis on an almost 40 times larger dataset we collect harvest data during the pre-pubertal period of grandparents (G0, n = 9,039) to examine its potential association with mortality in children (G1, n = 7,280) and grandchildren (G2, n = 11,561) in the Uppsala Multigeneration Study. We find support for the main Överkalix finding: paternal grandfather’s food access in pre-puberty predicts his male, but not female, grandchildren’s all-cause mortality. In our study, cancer mortality contributes strongly to this pattern. We are unable to reproduce previous results for diabetes and cardiovascular mortality.

Original language	English
Article number	5124
Journal	Nature Communications
Volume	9
Issue number	1
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-018-07617-9
Publication status	Published - 1 Dec 2018

Funding

Bitte Modin for initial discussions and management; Samantha Kearney for excellent background reading; Corinna Hartung for exploratory analyses of incomplete data; Agneta Cederström for data management; Dave Leon and Mats Lambe for discussions on cancer; Jenny Kreuger for discussions on aflatoxin and the use of chemicals in Swedish farming; Marcus Pembrey for helpful discussions about epigenetics. The Swedish Research Council (K2015-69 × -22720-01-3) funded the project.

Funders	Funder number
Vetenskapsrådet	K2015-69 × -22720-01-3

UN SDGs

This output contributes to the following UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

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title = "Paternal grandfather{\textquoteright}s access to food predicts all-cause and cancer mortality in grandsons",

abstract = "Studies of animals and plants suggest that nutritional conditions in one generation may affect phenotypic characteristics in subsequent generations. A small number of human studies claim to show that pre-pubertal nutritional experience trigger a sex-specific transgenerational response along the male line. A single historical dataset, the {\"O}verkalix cohorts in northern Sweden, is often quoted as evidence. To test this hypothesis on an almost 40 times larger dataset we collect harvest data during the pre-pubertal period of grandparents (G0, n = 9,039) to examine its potential association with mortality in children (G1, n = 7,280) and grandchildren (G2, n = 11,561) in the Uppsala Multigeneration Study. We find support for the main {\"O}verkalix finding: paternal grandfather{\textquoteright}s food access in pre-puberty predicts his male, but not female, grandchildren{\textquoteright}s all-cause mortality. In our study, cancer mortality contributes strongly to this pattern. We are unable to reproduce previous results for diabetes and cardiovascular mortality.",

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AU - Aronsson, Vanda

AU - van den Berg, Gerard J.

PY - 2018/12/1

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Paternal grandfather’s access to food predicts all-cause and cancer mortality in grandsons

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UN SDGs

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