Maternal obesity increases the risk of cancer in mouse offspring

According to a study, the offspring of obese mouse mothers have a greater risk of liver cancer as they get older. These results are a warning signal and a call to action, the University of Geneva wrote in a statement on Tuesday. However, it is not yet clear whether the results are transferable to humans.

To study the effects of severe obesity in mothers on their offspring, researchers from the University and University Hospital of Geneva examined two groups of female mice: the first was fed food high in fat and sugar, a type of junk food, until they became obese . The second, the control group, received a normal diet. All offspring were also fed normal food.

At the age of 20 weeks, which corresponds to adulthood in humans, the researchers could not find any significant differences between the two groups of mice, according to the study published in the journal “JHEP Reports”. However, at 40 weeks of age, the liver health of the first group began to deteriorate. “All parameters of liver disease – fat deposits, fibrosis and inflammation – were significantly increased in the offspring of obese mothers. And these are the most important risk factors for liver cancer in humans,” Beat Moeckli, lead author of the study, explained in the statement.

To test whether the mice actually have an increased risk of liver cancer, the researchers injected the young animals with a carcinogenic substance. As a result, 80 percent of the offspring of the overweight mice developed cancer – compared to only 20 percent in the control group.

The scientists identified the reason for this as the intestinal flora, the so-called microbiome, which is passed on from mother to child at birth. “Obesity changes the composition and diversity of the mother’s microbiome, which is passed on to the next generation and persists throughout life,” says Moeckli.

The good news: normalizing the intestinal flora also normalized the risk of cancer in the mice. Such normalization is possible in humans, for example through the use of probiotics. “Demonstrating the importance of the microbiome is a first step towards new therapies,” says Moeckli. (sda)