New study: Parents' metabolic traits can affect the child's health over time

Previous research by diabetes researcher Rashmi Prasad has shown that variations in previously known risk genes for type 2 diabetes increase the risk for the child to develop the disease if they are inherited from the mother. Inheriting these genes from the father, on the other hand, had less or no impact on the disease risk. In a new study, published in Diabetologia, Rashmi Prasad investigated how traits such as body weight, levels of blood sugar and cholesterol and insulin function are passed on from mothers and fathers to children and how these parental effects change over the years. The traits studied are of importance for cardiometabolic health. 

“Our new study shows that the mother had the greatest influence on blood sugar and cholesterol levels across the child’s different ages. Insulinrelated traits that are important to diabetes risk seem to be more influenced by the father over time, likely due to genes inherited from the father. The study has been possible to carry out thanks to genetic analyses and robust measurements in a population study with extensive follow-up,” says Rashmi Prasad, associate professor of genetics and diabetes at Lund University Diabetes Centre. 

Blood sugar and lipids

Rashmi Prasad led the study together with researchers at King Edward Memorial (KEM) Hospital and Research Centre in Pune, India. The research team conducted genetic and statistical analyses of data from 2,400 participants in the Pune Maternal Nutrition Study (PMNS) in India. The researchers have studied the relationship between traits such as BMI (body mass index), insulin function and levels of blood glucose and lipids in parents and offspring when the child was 6, 12 and 24 years. The relationship between the traits of each of the parents with that of the child has been explained by genetic markers. The study shows that the mother had the greatest influence on the baby’s birth weight. The child’s ability to regulate blood sugar levels as well as blood lipids had a stronger association with the mother’s genes from birth to adulthood. 

“When we looked at levels of blood sugar and lipids at group level, we could see that the levels of the mother and the child were similar to a greater extent. If we know that the mother's genes have a greater impact on the child’s ability to regulate cholesterol levels, the preventive treatments can focus on regulating glucose and cholesterol in the pregnant mother to reduce the child’s risk to develop cardiovascular disease in the future," says Rashmi Prasad.

Effects on insulin function

The participants in the population study have participated in tests that measure the insulin sensitivity and function of the insulin-producing cells. The researchers' analyses show that the father's genes had a stronger effect on the child's insulin function at different ages. 

“If the father has insulin resistance and impaired insulin secretion, it may also affect the child in the future. Such knowledge can be used to prevent type 2 diabetes. Through increased physical activity, insulin sensitivity may be improved in both father and the child. We know that exercise can decrease the risk of developing type 2 diabetes," says Rashmi Prasad.

The researchers behind the study hope to see more research that increases the understanding of how parents’ metabolic traits may affect health of the offspring. Such knowledge can lead to new strategies that can prevent type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular disease and obesity at an early stage. 

“Some influences we have seen in this study can be due to the mother’s genes, but also due to the mother’s influence during the fetus’s development. More research is needed to uncover the exact mechanisms behind these parental effects. Our study provides strong evidence that both parents contribute to a child’s metabolism in different ways,” says Rashmi Prasad.

Publication
"Parent-of-origin effects in the life-course evolution of cardiometabolic traits", Diabetologia (2025)

Facts about the study
Subject: Parent-of-origin effects, cardiometabolic traits
Research area: Basic research, clinical research, epidemiological research
Study design: Quantitative study, researcher-initiated study, cause-effect-link, statistical link
Observational study (epidemiological): Retrospective, longitudinal, cross-sectional study
Number of groups in the study: Five (fathers, mothers, offspring, sons, daughters) 
Number of patients in the study: About 2400 healthy volunteers from the Pune Maternal Nutrition Study (PMNS). About 1200 healthy volunteers from the Pune Children’s Study (PCS)

Type 2 diabetes
Type 2 diabetes is characterised by insulin resistance, which means that the body's cells become less sensitive to insulin. The insulin-producing cells also have a reduced ability to release insulin. This, in turn, leads to high levels of glucose in the blood.

Genetics can affect who is at risk of developing type 2 diabetes. Overweight or obesity may increase the risk of type 2 diabetes. Type 2 diabetes can lead to complications such as cardiovascular disease.

This is what the researchers have studied:

• A trait can be inherited by both the parents equally. It is also possible that these traits may be inherited from one of the parents to a greater extent. Such effects are termed as parent-of-origin effects (POE).
• Cardiometabolic traits, such as the ability to regulate blood sugar, are hereditary, and the researchers wanted to investigate the parental effects on traits of importance to cardiometabolic health in the child.
• The research team studied parent-of-origin effects on cardiometabolic traits in an Indian population study called the Pune Maternal Nutrition Study (PMNS) and could confirm the findings in another cohort. 
• The researchers investigated parent-of-origin effects on children’s BMI (body mass index), insulin function, blood sugar levels and blood lipids. 
• The cross-sectional study examined the parental effect on the child's metabolic traits at three different ages – 6, 12 and 24 years. The analysis shows that the mother’s and father’s effect on the child's cardiometabloc health varied between different ages.
• Longitudinal studies aimed to determine which one of the parent had the greatest overall effect on cardiometabolic traits during the whole period. These studies showed that the child’s ability to regulate blood sugar levels as well as blood lipids had a stronger association with the mother’s genes. The father's genes had a stronger effect on the child's insulin function. 
• The study, published in the scientific journal Diabetologia, is an observational study and it is not possible to establish causal relationships.