People with asthma might have their great grandmothers to blame, new research suggests.
Scientists discovered that maternal smoking can cause three generations of children to develop the chronic lung disease.
The news comes at a time when about 250 million women worldwide smoke daily and 300 million people have asthma.
Scientists discovered that maternal smoking can cause three generations of children to develop the chronic lung disease
Researchers at Los Angeles Biomedical Research Institute at Harbour-UCLA Medical Centre found that maternal nicotine exposure during pregnancy is linked to asthma in the third generation in disease models.
This is known as a ‘transgenerational’ link because the third generation was never directly exposed to nicotine or smoking.
Previous research had already found nicotine exposure was linked to asthma in the second generation.
‘Even though there are multiple causes for childhood asthma, research linking this serious chronic condition to maternal nicotine exposure during pregnancy for up to three generations should give mothers-to-be even more reasons to reconsider smoking,’ said Dr Virender Rehan an LA BioMed lead researcher.
‘Eliminating the use of tobacco during pregnancy could help halt the rise in childhood asthma and ensure healthier children for generations to come.’
Worldwide, approximately 250 million women smoke daily, and the number of people living with asthma is expected to grow by about a third by 2025, reaching approximately 400 million.
The news comes at a time when about 250 million women worldwide smoke daily and 300 million people have asthma
Twelve per cent of women in the U.S. continue to smoke during pregnancy, resulting in the birth of at least 400,000 smoke-exposed infants per year in the U.S. alone.
In previous studies, the researchers have concluded that the cause of the second generation's asthma was epigenetic modification - an environmental factor causing a genetic change.
Nicotine affects both the lung cells and the sex cells in ways that cause the lungs that developed from those cells to develop abnormally, causing asthma.
The current study ‘paves the way for determining the epigenetic mechanisms’ behind smoking and the transmission of asthma to future generations, the researchers concluded.
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-2385462/Women-smoke-pregnancy-cause-GREAT-GRANDCHILDREN-develop-asthma.html#ixzz2bDh8Sdzs
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