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Prenatal alcohol use alters the gene for proopiomelanocortin (POMC), which produces melanocortin and β-endorphin, proteins that participate in regulation of energy, the stress response, the immune system, and brain reward systems. These changes result in fetal alcohol effects as well as vulnerability to infection and other illnesses. In an animal study, researchers investigated whether alteration of Pomc expression by paternal use of alcohol (i.e., its epigenetic effect) could be transmitted to offspring lacking direct alcohol experience.
The investigators fed diets with or without alcohol to pregnant rats and then created male and female germlines by breeding male and female offspring and their same-sex progeny to nonexposed rats. Compared …