PRESS-NEWS.org - Press Release Distribution
PRESS RELEASES DISTRIBUTION

Transmitting future asthma by smoking today

2013-09-20
(Press-News.org) Bethesda, Md. (Sept. 20, 2013)—Asthma is a serious public health problem. An estimated 300 million people worldwide suffer from this sometimes deadly lung disease, a number expected to increase to 400 million by 2025. One well-established risk factor for asthma is having a mother who smoked during her pregnancy. However, researchers recently discovered that smoking can have a lasting legacy. When animal mothers are exposed to nicotine during pregnancy—a proxy for smoking—their grandchildren were also at an increased risk of asthma, even though they were never exposed to nicotine themselves.

Wondering if this dangerous heritage might extend even farther down the family line, Virender K. Rehan and his colleagues at Los Angeles Biomedical Research Institute at Harbor-UCLA Medical Center (LA BioMed) exposed pregnant rats to nicotine. They then tested an additional generation—the mothers' great-grand-rats—for signs of asthma. Their results suggest that this group of rats is also at an increased risk of this condition, bearing the brunt of nicotine exposure three generations in the past.

The article is entitled "Perinatal Nicotine-Induced Transgenerational Asthma." It appears in the Articles in PresS section of the American Journal of Physiology-Lung Cellular and Molecular Physiology, published by the American Physiological Society. It is available online at http://bit.ly/19fcw03.

Methodology

The researchers separated pregnant rats into two groups. One group received a dose of nicotine injected under their skin daily—a model for smoking in humans—starting when they were 6 days pregnant until 21 days after they gave birth. Their pups were allowed to breastfeed as much as they wanted until they weaned at 3 weeks old. Another group of pregnant rats received only a placebo injected under their skin for the same time period. The researchers used rat pups from these pregnancies to breed subsequent generations of rats. When they reached the third generation born from the original rat moms—their great-grandchildren—they performed a series of tests on these animals to look for signs of asthma. They exposed these animals to a lung irritant to see how much it narrowed their airways, a test similar to one used to diagnose asthma in people. They also tested how the animals' windpipes responded to a chemical that caused them to contract, another indicator of asthma. No rats except for the pregnant moms were ever directly exposed to nicotine.

Results

The study authors found that the great-grandchildren of the rat mothers exposed to nicotine were significantly more likely to have signs of asthma on the lung and windpipe tests compared to those descended from mothers who received the placebo. Those great-grandchildren of the nicotine-exposed moms had lungs that narrowed more easily when exposed to an asthma provocative challenge and windpipes that contracted more readily.

Importance of the Findings

These findings suggest that smoking may have effects that reverberate through generations, particularly by influencing asthma risk, the authors say. Though they're not yet sure why, they suggest that smoking may influence which genes are turned on or off in offspring, including genes in their sperm and eggs. These effects can be passed down from parents to offspring over and over, upping asthma risk for subsequent generations.

Study Team

In addition to Virender K. Rehan, the study team also includes Jie Liu, Reiko Sakurai and John S. Torday, all of LA BioMed. The study was supported in parts by grants from the NIH.

###

NOTE TO EDITORS: To schedule an interview with a member of the research team, please contact Donna Krupa at dkrupa@the-aps.org, @Phyziochick, or 301.634.7209. The article is available online at http://bit.ly/19fcw03.

Physiology is the study of how molecules, cells, tissues, and organs function in health and disease. Established in 1887, the American Physiological Society (APS) was the first US society in the biomedical sciences field. The Society represents more than 11,000 members and publishes 14 peer-reviewed journals with a worldwide readership.

END



ELSE PRESS RELEASES FROM THIS DATE:

Final piece found in puzzle of brain circuitry controlling fertility

2013-09-20
In a landmark discovery, the final piece in the puzzle of understanding how the brain circuitry vital to normal fertility in humans and other mammals operates has been put together by researchers at New Zealand's University of Otago. Their new findings, which appear in the leading international journal Nature Communications, will be critical to enabling the design of novel therapies for infertile couples as well as new forms of contraception. The research team, led by Otago neuroscientist Professor Allan Herbison, have discovered the key cellular location of signalling ...

Digoxin use associated with higher risk of death for patients diagnosed with heart failure

2013-09-20
OAKLAND, Calif., Sept. 20, 2013 — Digoxin, a drug commonly used to treat heart conditions, was associated with a 72 percent higher rate of death among adults with newly diagnosed systolic heart failure, according to a Kaiser Permanente study that appears in the current online issue of Circulation: Cardiovascular Quality and Outcomes. Digoxin is a drug derived from digitalis, a plant that has been used for more than 200 years to treat heart failure. "These findings suggest that the use of digoxin should be reevaluated for the treatment of systolic heart failure in contemporary ...

Scripps Research Institute study explores barriers to HIV vaccine response

2013-09-20
LA JOLLA, CA -- Researchers at The Scripps Research Institute (TSRI) discovered that an antibody that binds and neutralizes HIV likely also targets the body's own "self" proteins. This finding could complicate the development of HIV vaccines designed to elicit this protective antibody, called 4E10, and others like it, as doing so might be dangerous or inefficient. "We developed two new mouse models that allow us to visualize the fate of the rare B cells that can see HIV and we thought could be stimulated by vaccines to produce neutralizing antibodies -- the type of antibodies ...

The higher the better?

2013-09-20
High-intensity exercise is shown to be protective against coronary heart disease (CHD) and is well known as a popular and time-saving approach to getting fit. But what about people who already have heart disease? Previously, these patients were told to exercise, but only at a moderate intensity to protect their hearts. More recently, however, researchers have found that high-intensity exercise is very beneficial for these patients. But how intense should these sessions actually be? A new study from the K. G. Jebsen -- Center of Exercise in Medicine at the Norwegian University ...

Building the best brain: U-M researchers show how brain cell connections get cemented early in life

2013-09-20
ANN ARBOR, Mich. -- When we're born, our brains aren't very organized. Every brain cell talks to lots of other nearby cells, sending and receiving signals across connections called synapses. But as we grow and learn, things get a bit more stable. The brain pathways that will serve us our whole lives start to organize, and less-active, inefficient synapses shut down. But why and how does this happen? And what happens when it doesn't go normally? New research from the University of Michigan Medical School may help explain. In a new paper in Nature Neuroscience, a ...

Gap closed in the genetic map of kingdom fungi

2013-09-20
Today, the genomes of more than 250 fungi have been sequenced. Among the basal filamentous ascomycetes – a group of ascomycetes that includes e.g. truffles and morels – only one representative has been analysed so far: the truffle Tuber melanosporum. "With 125 million base pairs, the truffle genome is unusually big, yet it is coding for relatively few genes, namely some 7,500," says Minou Nowrousian from the Department of General and Molecular Botany. "Until now, it was not clear whether this is typical of basal filamentous ascomycetes or whether it is caused by the truffle's ...

Lifestyle influences metabolism via DNA methylation

2013-09-20
In the course of life, aging processes, environmental influences and lifestyle factors such as smoking or diet induce biochemical alterations to the DNA. Frequently, these lead to DNA methylation, a process in which methyl groups are added to particular DNA segments, without changing the DNA sequence. Such processes can influence gene function and are known as epigenetics. Scientists of the Institute of Genetic Epidemiology (IGE) and the Research Unit Molecular Epidemiology (AME) at Helmholtz Zentrum München are seeking to determine what association exists between these ...

New rat genus discovered in the birthplace of the theory of evolution

2013-09-20
A prominent tuft of spiny hair on the back, a white tail tip and three pairs of teats represent the unique set of characteristics describing a new genus of rat which has been discovered in the Moluccan province of Indonesia. This region had a profound influence on the British Naturalist Alfred Russell Wallace who independently developed the theory of evolution alongside Charles Darwin. The international team of zoologists was led by the Museum Zoologicum Bogoriense in Indonesia and the Center for Macroecology, Evolution and Climate at the University of Copenhagen. One ...

Getting rid of unwanted visitors

2013-09-20
The digestive systems of all animals contain a large number of different bacteria. Humans are no exception and our intestines provide warmth, shelter and food to a vast range of unicellular organisms, many of which are either beneficial to their hosts or at least cause no ill effects other than consuming some of the food we ingest. However, several species have been associated with disease. Among them is Helicobacter pylori, which may play a part in causing chronic gastritis and gastric ulcers. An ancient colonizer recently discovered Helicobacter pylori was only discovered ...

Crucial new insight into the secrets of Nobel Prize-winning pump

2013-09-20
The story of the sodium-potassium pump has strong ties to Denmark. In 1997, the Danish scientist Jens Chr. Skou received the Nobel Prize in Chemistry for his discovery, and over the years, research on the pump has remained a strong focus area at Aarhus University. In 2007, the joint efforts of various research teams at Aarhus University led to the description of the structure of the potassium-bound state of the pump - now, Danish researchers have also described the other state of the pump; the sodium-bound state. The results were recently published in the journal Science. The ...

LAST 30 PRESS RELEASES:

Decoding plants’ language of light

UNC Greensboro study finds ticks carrying Lyme disease moving into western NC

New implant restores blood pressure balance after spinal cord injury

New York City's medical specialist advantage may be an illusion, new NYU Tandon research shows

Could a local anesthetic that doesn’t impair motor function be within reach?

1 in 8 Italian cetacean strandings show evidence of fishery interactions, with bottlenose and striped dolphins most commonly affected, according to analysis across four decades of data and more than 5

In the wild, chimpanzees likely ingest the equivalent of several alcoholic drinks every day

Warming of 2°C intensifies Arctic carbon sink but weakens Alpine sink, study finds

Bronze and Iron Age cultures in the Middle East were committed to wine production

Indian adolescents are mostly starting their periods at an earlier age than 25 years ago

Temporary medical centers in Gaza known as "Medical Points" (MPs) treat an average of 117 people daily with only about 7 staff per MP

Rates of alcohol-induced deaths among the general population nearly doubled from 1999 to 2024

PLOS One study: In adolescent lab animals exposed to cocaine, High-Intensity Interval Training boosts aversion to the drug

Scientists identify four ways our bodies respond to COVID-19 vaccines

Stronger together: A new fusion protein boosts cancer immunotherapy

Hidden brain waves as triggers for post-seizure wandering

Music training can help the brain focus

Researcher develop the first hydride ion prototype battery

MIT researchers find a more precise way to edit the genome

‘Teen’ pachycephalosaur butts into fossil record

Study finds cocoa extract supplement reduced key marker of inflammation and aging

Obesity treatment with bariatric surgery vs GLP-1 receptor agonists

Nicotinamide for skin cancer chemoprevention

Novel way to ‘rev up’ brown fat burns calories, limits obesity in mice

USC Stem Cell-led team makes major advance toward building a synthetic kidney

Delegation to Artificial Intelligence can increase dishonest behavior

Repeated head impacts cause early neuron loss and inflammation in young athletes

BU study of young athletes finds neurodegeneration might begin before CTEa

Dr. Carl Nathan wins David and Beatrix Hamburg Award

New microscope captures large, high-resolution images of curved samples in single snapshot

[Press-News.org] Transmitting future asthma by smoking today