Nautilus looks at the long-term effects of famine — and finds that extreme hunger can affect the bodies of future generations:
To conduct their research, [Tulane pediatric nephrologist Giovane] Tortelote’s lab fed a group of mice a low-protein, high-carb diet—about a third of the protein lab mice normally get in their diet. Very low protein diets have been shown to have a similar physiological impact on the body as famine does. The researchers then studied the mice’s offspring over the next four generations, all of who received normal diets. What they found is that all four subsequent generations had lower birth weights and smaller, weaker kidneys, leading risk factors for chronic kidney disease and hypertension.
The mouse babies suffered low birth weights and compromised kidneys not only when both parents followed a low-protein diet prior to breeding and during gestation, but also when the father alone had a low-protein diet prior to breeding. In other words, a poor diet affected not just the gestation period but genetic inheritance from father to offspring. “That tells you that the uterine environment is important, but it’s also important what comes from the dad—this is not genetics, it’s epigenetics,” says Tortelote.
Tortelote estimates that it could take five or six generations of improved diet for the negative effects of malnutrition on the health of one’s descendants to subside, but determining this would require further research. His lab is also looking into the molecular mechanism by which the epigenetic changes get passed on, and trying to create a supplemental metabolite that could help reset gene expression in the offspring.
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You can read more of the eipgenetic research here, in Heliyon.